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HORSE-BACK RIDING, 



MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW. 



i 



B~Z" THE S^.3^E ATJTHOR. 



RESEARCHES 



ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE 

Nervous Ganglionic System, 



AND THEIR 



APPLICATION TO PATHOLOGY, 



On the Cause, Prevention, and Cure 

OF 

TUBERCULOUS PHTHISIS, 

BEING THE ESSAY TO WHICH THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
AWARDED THE " HIRAM CORLISS " PRIZE. 



ON CONSUMPTION, 

TO WHICH ESSAY WAS AWARDED THE GOLD MEDAL OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF 
THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK. 



HYGIENE OF THE VOICE 

ITS PHYSIOLOGY AND ANATOMY. 



SEA-BATHING: 



ITS USE AND ABUSE. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 



FROM A 



MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW. 



GHISLANI DURANT, M.D., Ph.D., 

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION; FELLOW OF THE NEW YORK 

ACADEMY OF MEDICINE; MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF 

THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, ETC., ETC. 




New York: 

CASSELL, PETTER & GALPIN, 

No. 596 Broadway. 

1878. 

(IT 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by 
GHISLANI DURANT, M.D., 

in the Office of the Libraiian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



A 
M. LE DOCTEUR R. CHASSAIGNE, 



ftonotflttafle ttt reconnaissance. 



Ghislani Durant, 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAP. I. — Of Movements in the Functions of Life, . 7 

CHAP. II. — Medical Gymnastics, 16 

CHAP. III. — Mechanism of Horse-back Riding, .... 22 

CHAP. IV. — Physiological Effects of Horse-back Riding, 33 

CHAP. V. — Therapeutic Effects of Horse-back Riding, 65 

CHAP. VI. — Hygienic Effects of Horse-back Riding, . 102 



Origin and Progress of Horse Races, 113 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 



i. 

OF MOVEMENT IN THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 

4 4 Bodily labor is of two kinds, either that which a man submits to for 
his livelihood, or that which he undergoes for his pleasure. The 
latter of them generally changes the name of labor for that of exer- 
cise, but differs only from ordinary labor as it rises from another 
motive. 

" . . . . . I might here mention the effects which this has 
upon all the faculties of the mind, by keeping the understanding 
clear, the imagination untroubled, and refining those spirits that are 
necessary for the proper exertion of our intellectual faculties, during 
the present laws of union between soul and body. 

" To conclude, as I am a compound of soul and body, 

I consider myself as obliged to a double scheme of duties ; and 
think I have not fulfilled the business of the day when I do not thus 
employ the one in labor and exercise, as well as the other in study 
and contemplation. Addison." 

It is only necessary to observe man in the nature and 
diversity of his acts, and in his peculiar constitution, 
to see that he is a complex being, mind and matter, 
during the entire length of his active existence. 

We find the proof of this in all the acts of his life, 
and recognize its necessity in all the distinctive 



8 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

phenomena of his species ; and from the reciprocal 
and harmonious reaction of mind and matter re- 
sults his perfect development. 

For a long time physiologists have considered the 
various phenomena, which are the manifestations of 
organic life, to be produced by some hidden forces. 
These forces have received various names, the most 
prominent among them being bone (Van Helmont), 
soul (Stahl), and vital principles (Bartles). A very 
slight consideration of the meaning to be attached to 
the terms vital force and vital principle will convince 
us that they both mean one and the same thing, and 
that under these two names modern physiologists 
designate that force residing in the individual upon 
which depend the phenomena or attributes by 
means of which life manifests itself. This is the 
force which, when acting upon matter, vivifying it, as 
we may say, causes it to take a particular form, which 
presides over the function of nutrition, which per- 
petuates the various races, which forces organized 
matter to take on a predetermined specific form. 

The principle of life is not a question for us now to 
discuss. The arguments on that point, though always 
in the mouths of men, are yet very far from being 
settled. Two conflicting opinions stand confronting 
each other. The first, held by Zenon, Epicureus, 
Cabanis, Broussais, etc., represents matter active in 
and of itself, sole cause of all the phenomena of 
nature ; and to these philosophers life is but an effect 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 9 

of that activity. In the other, on the contrary, life 
is a principle of the activity of matter, a force which 
necessitates certain acts, indeed, a cause of the first 
phenomena of the living being, outside of all qualities 
of structure. 

This latter view of the question is advocated by 
Plato, Hippocrates, and Galen, as well as by Stahl, 
Boerrhave and Hoffman, that great triumvirate of the 
eighteenth century, to whom the most immediate ex- 
pression of life was motion. 

We find the first principle of the system of the lat- 
ter to be that the human body, as well as all other 
bodies in nature, possesses material forces by means 
of which it moves. A body, simply because it is a 
body, has forces of cohesion and of resistance which 
are given it by the Creator. 

That imponderable material agent, ether, the ac- 
tive motor force, animates all the properties of bodies, 
and presides over all the physical phenomena in the 
unity of the creation. Thus the living mechanism 
performs the functions which are peculiar to it, by 
virtue of the properties assigned to animal matter ; 
and the activity of those properties resides essentially 
in the power of a special ether secreted by the brain, 
and carried to all the parts of the organism by a very 
complicated organic apparatus. 

That ether is the primary and efficient cause of all 
vital movements. // it is which animates all the 
organs, and each of them ceases to perform its func- 



IO HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

tions from the moment it no longer receives the vivi- 
fying and animating ether. 

The nervous fluid is to Hoffman, then, nothing else 
but the sensitive soul presiding over the organism and 
constituting the mere life of man. 

Essentially material, that sensitive soul is entirely 
different from the spiritual soul which is momentarily 
united to the living body. The seat of the conscience 
and source of reasoning, that spiritual soul elevates 
the man from a mere animal to an intellectual, re- 
sponsible being. 

That idea of a sensitive and perishable soul, dis- 
tinct from the thinking and immortal soul, is but a 
tradition of antiquity. It goes back to Cicero, Plato, 
Pythagorus ; to the Persian, Indian, and Chinese 
philosophy. It reaches the origin of man. 

Frederick Hoffman, then, makes life dependent on 
the organization, and not at all on the spiritual prin- 
ciple of which it is the home. Life, then, is the circu- 
lating movement of the blood, and the humors pro- 
duced and kept up by the impulse of the heart and 
arteries, by* the contractions of the dura mater, and 
the vibrations of the meninges which, sending the 
ether or nervous fluid to all parts of the body, pene- 
trate them with regular movements. Life is the pro- 
duct of the organization set in motion by the laws 
assigned to organized matter. 

Embryonic, man is but an organized and focun- 
dated molecule living his life by the life of his 



HORSE BACK RIDING. II 

mother, who carries him in her womb. Thus life, 
through woman, goes back to the Creator, and all 
the generations of men are joined in the unity of a 
same origin, and of a single and identical species. 
The child is born, but its life is still latent. An at- 
mospheric pressure necessitates the action of the 
respiratory nerves ; the child breathes, and the whole 
living mechanism moves, is warmed up. The child 
having once breathed, it lives of its own life and 
grows incessantly in divers and varied ways ; for the 
living mechanism finds itself incessantly in relation 
with the elements of the exterior world, gravity, 
light, heat, electricity ; with the geographical and 
geological influences ; with all things of which the 
reciprocal influences are increasing, and against which 
he reacts without cessation. 

Thus man continues on his own account the life 
which he has begun through his mother ; he lives 
now his own individual life. From the air he draws 
incessantly the gas which purifies his blood. It is 
first in the blood elaborated by his mother, and after- 
wards in that which he himself elaborates with the 
material of alimentation that he draws the elements 
of the nutrition of the nervous, the muscular, and of 
the vascular system — of the whole entire mechanism ; 
and that, by divers and varied non-interrupted series 
of actions and reactions, co-operates in the unity of 
his being. And we may well say with Daly, the in- 
dividual life upon earth will end as it has begun. It 



12 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

has begun by an expiration of the celestial world into 
the terrestrial ; as mysteriously it ends ! The in- 
dividual life ascends towards its Creator ; the ele- 
ments, disassociated, dissolve and pass into new com- 
binations. Nothing dies. 

Developing the body, and when developed, put- 
ting to their proper use the forces that exist, alone 
can maintain in a salutary state of activity the trans- 
formation and renewal of the organic matter, which 
is the fundamental condition of life. A break in that 
transformation and renewal may bring on any of the 
thousand ills that flesh is heir to. 

Full of that truth, physicians have in all ages urged 
that well-advised corporeal movements were to be 
considered as an indispensable condition of the pres- 
ervation, and even, under some circumstances, of 
the re-establishment of health. 

In order that man may maintain himself in a normal 
state, that is to say in a state of health, and develop 
himself in conformity with the destination of his na- 
ture, a bodily and spiritual activity corresponding to 
the measure of his individual forces is absolutely 
necessary. But the entire activity of the body is 
much more indispensable than that of the mind, as 
we shall presently see. 

The ensemble of the organic life rests upon an un- 
ceasing renewal of matter ; upon an elimination of 
that which has grown old, which the vital act has ren- 
dered unfit to be made use of ; and upon the assim- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 13 

ilation of a new quantity of organic matter under a 
suitable form, the elements of which the body draws 
from the blood and the air breathed. 

"The flame of life," says Schraeber, "from the 
first pulsation to the last is continually lighted at the 
stove of the transformation of matter/ \ Hence, the 
more rapid and complete the renewal of the substance 
of the body, that transformation of matter grown old, 
in other more fresh, the more life will gain in fresh- 
ness, in strength, and in duration. 

Thus, in order that our body be well, it is neces- 
sary that the molecules constituting it be renewed, 
be constantly made young again. Any departure 
from this order of phenomena, if not rapidly com- 
pensated, produces suffering, disease, death. 

But the stimulation of the renewal of matter and 
the refreshing of life is determined generally by the 
activity of the organs of the body, as long as there is a 
harmonious relation kept up between exercise and 
the time of repose. 

The movements which are accomplished by the 
animal economy, says Beclard, are numerous and 
varied. The most striking and extended are the 
movements of totality, that is to say, the movements 
of locomotion, by virtue of which man and the ani- 
mals voluntarily change their relations with other 
bodies and move in the midst of surrounding objects. 
Of these movements are walking, running, swim- 
ming, etc. Another order we might call partial 



14 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

movements, or movements in situ, and which we ob- 
serve in man w r ith a degree of frequency and com- 
plexity, varied almost ad infinitum, consist in the 
change of relation of the divers segments which com- 
pose the skeleton : changes of situation, by virtue of 
which the members play the most important part, 
although the trunk itself generally participates in the 
motion. 

But even when man or the animals do not execute 
the extended movements of which we have spoken, 
they are still far from being immobile. The thoracic 
cage is each instant raised and lowered, moved by the 
filling of the lungs, and by their return to their first 
dimensions, the entrance and exit of the air necessary 
to respiration. The digestive tube and the stomach 
work upon the aliments contained in their cavity. 
At certain moments, which correspond with the feel- 
ing of hunger and thirst, food is brought to the 
mouth and taken by it ; the tongue, the teeth, 
jaws and pharynx set to work each in their way, 
to divide the food, to masticate and swallow it, 
etc. . . . And when digestion is accomplished, 
the residue is expulsed by the active forces of defeca- 
tion. 

At every movement the heart contracts on the 
blood which is brought to it, and sends it to the 
arteries. The arteries, capillaries, and veins work 
upon that liquid by a retrograde movement due to 
the elasticity of their walls, and also, in certain con- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 15 

ditions, by virtue of the contractile power inherent in 
their coverings. 

The divers functions of the organs of the senses, 
the production of the sound of the voice, that of 
speech, necessitate also varied, and more or less com- 
plicated movements, not only in the position of the 
organ of the sense taken as a whole, but also in re- 
ciprocal relations of its divers constituting parts. 

It may be said in a general way, that all the func- 
tions of the economy are accompanied by move- 
ments. 



II. 

MEDICAL GYMNASTICS. 

" Messieurs : 

" La gymnastique medicale, consideree par les anciens comme un 
des moyens les plus puissants d'education et d'hygiene publiques, 
devait etre abandonnee a une epoque ou la partie materielle de l'etre 
semblait meprisable et sans valeur et etait souvent traitee en 
ennemie. 

*' On revient aujourd'hui a des idees plus justes, et Ton commence 
a comprendre l'importance de la forme faite a Timage de Dieu et 
jugee digne de recevoir une ame immortelle. 

" Ce n'est certainement pas sans une profonde sagesse que le corps 
et l'esprit ont ete associes par le Createur, et la beaute plastique, 
quoique inferieure a la beaute morale, n'en merite pas moins l'at- 
tention des medecins et des philosophes." 

(Sedillot, Soc. de Med. Strasbourg, Juin, 1854.) 

It has always been acknowledged that bodily exer- 
cise is the surest and most efficacious means of pre- 
serving health or re-establishing it where altered or 
upset. It is a recognized fact that individuals who 
pass their lives in idleness, and without taking any 
kind of exercise, never enjoy good health ; that they 
are subject to an infinity of maladies, their fibres are 
weak and relaxed, the organs become benumbed and 
lazy. They begin by losing appetite, because the 
digestive faculties work badly ; their bodies grow 
fat, and, overloaded with an incommodious embon- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. J 7 

point, soon become incapacitated for most occupa- 
tions. 

Exercise, on the contrary, increases the strength ; 
the blood circulates more freely, and with more uni- 
formity ; the fibres become stronger and more elas- 
tic ; all the humors receive a more perfect elabora- 
tion; the nervous fluid separates from the brain in 
greater quantity, to spread itself through the nerves, 
and all the functions of the body are performed and 
movements made with more energy and ease. 

From a medical point of view, movements take 
place in the muscles, the bones, the tendons, and in 
all the soft parts of the body. They are divided into 
three classes : Active, passive, and mixed. 

Active movement or exercise is the one executed 
voluntarily by the individual alone. In this the body 
is the sole agent of the movement, as in walking, 
running, jumping, dancing. All the movements of 
the thoracic and abdominal members are exercises 
which result exclusively from muscular contractions. 

In passive exercise the person is moved, not offer- 
ing the slightest resistance ; or again it may consist 
in the agitation of the body by means of machines 
upon which the individual is placed, or which trans- 
port him from one place to another, such as carriage- 
driving, etc. 

Most exercises, however, partake at the same time 
of both of the above-mentioned kinds, and require 
that the individual, although supported and sub- 



1 8 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

jected to a motion communicated by a foreign body, 
act, however, either to preserve certain attitudes or to 
communicate motion to the machine or instrument 
upon which he may be placed ; in a word, that cer- 
tain parts of himself participate in the motion. 

To this class of exercises belongs horse-back riding, 
for we have here two orders of movements, those 
that the horse executes and those made by the rider 
to keep himself in equilibrium on a movable base, 
as well as to govern his animal. In other words, the 
communicating force, the horse, and the active force, 
the rider. 

But to appreciate fully the advantages of horse- 
back riding, it is necessary to study first the local as 
well as the general effects produced by active and 
passive exercises. 

i. Effects of active exercises. — In order to form an 
idea of the influence of active exercises on the econ- 
omy, it is sufficient to examine the condition of the 
members that are much exercised. 

If you set a part to work for a while, you see it 
first swell from the afflux of a larger quantity of 
blood ; the heat becomes greater there, and if you 
repeat habitually the same movements, you see de- 
velop in the part which executes them a greater per- 
fection of action, an increase of nutrition and of 
energy. 

It is not only the organs of active movements that 
experience such effects. The nutritive functions be- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. J 9 

come better and more active under their influence, 
and when the muscles are much exercised, they gen- 
erally communicate an increased activity to the 
viscera. Following work and fatigue, the need of 
food becomes more frequent and more imperious ; 
the stomach, more active, digests greater quantities. 

A moderate exercise after meals renders digestion 
easier and consequently more perfect, so much so 
that persons who have contracted the habit experi- 
ence the imperious need of it, and digest badly when 
they cannot satisfy it. 

Active exercises always cause acceleration of the 
circulation and respiration. Many movements modify 
in a very powerful manner this last function ; some 
by simply accelerating it, others by exacting sus- 
tained and frequent dilatations of the thorax indis- 
pensable to the execution of sustained efforts. 

Calorification, which is generally only a result of 
the nutritive functions, is greatly increased by the 
force, duration, and specially the frequency of active 
exercises. We know that perspiration is always more 
or less increased by those exercises. The other secre- 
tions or exhalations are not more abundant, some 
even seem diminished. 

Moderate active exercise renders nutrition more 
perfect in all the organs of the economy ; there is not 
one of them that does not show its influence, since 
all participate in the molecular agitations which the 
movement of the members cause in the whole body. 



20 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

That increase of nutrition is, besides, a consequence 
of the greater activity of the principal visceral func- 
tions. 

But it is specially in the muscular system that is 
manifested in the most remarkable manner that 
activity of nutrition, for the muscles acquire more 
volume, more density, more power, and in turn react 
upon the internal organs. 

Active exercise practised in early life appears also 
to increase the nutrition of the osseous system. The 
muscular contractions develop the whole frame and 
increase the size of the eminences where the muscles 
are attached. To the muscular development is 
always joined that of the circulatory system, and 
from the well-being of the two apparatuses results a 
robust constitution, and one ordinarily exempt from 
infirmities. 

To resume, then, active exercises exert first their 
influence on the muscles which execute the move- 
ments, and they increase afterwards the action and 
the energy of the assimilating organs, because the 
muscles requiring from these a greater amount of 
material proper to their development, double neces- 
sarily their w r ork, and because they communicate also 
to the organs of nutrition agitations favorable to the 
execution of their functions and to the nutrition of 
tissue. 

2. Effects of passive exercises, — These exercises take 
place without contraction of the muscles ; the body, 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 21 

then, is only submitted to agitations and concussions 
more or less great and frequent, which penetrate it, 
so to. speak, and act upon all its parts. These mo- 
tions stimulate the tissues, increase the organic ac- 
tivity, and render the execution of nutritive functions 
more easy. They do not excite, as is the case in 
great active exercises, disturbance in the digestion, 
circulation, or respiration ; they do not increase ani- 
mal heat and perspiration ; they do not cause either 
loss or fatigue ; they are therefore suited to conva- 
lescents, and to individuals of weak constitution. 

3. Effects of mixed exercises. — Mixed exercises, and 
specially horse-back riding, unite in themselves the ad- 
vantages of active movements, and those of commu- 
nicated or passive movements. They have on the 
muscles and on the viscera an action more powerful 
than the last, and that action has not, like the great 
muscular contractions, the inconvenience of bringing 
on great fatigue and an abundant loss of nutritive 
material ; thus the mixed exercises are almost suit- 
able to all ages, to most temperaments, and, above 
all, to all individuals who by constitution are not 
strong enough to take great active exercises, yet have, 
however, need of more movement than simple gesta- 
tion. 



Ill 

MECHANISM OF HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

11 I concede that walking is an immeasurably fine invention, of 
which old age ought constantly avail itself. But in some respects 
saddle leather is even preferable to sole leather. 

44 You may be sure that Bacon and Sydenham did not recommend 
it for nothing. One's hepar — or, in vulgar language, liver — a ponder- 
ous organ, weighing some three or four pounds, goes up and down 
like the dasher of a churn in the midst of other vital arrangements, 
at every step of a trotting horse. The brains also are shaken up 
like coppers in a money-box 

44 In all forms of active exercises, there are three powers simulta- 
neously in action — the will, the muscles, and the intellect. In walk- 
ing, the will and muscles are so accustomed to work together, and 
perform their duties with so little expenditure of force, that the 
intellect is left comparatively free. But in riding I have the addi- 
tional pleasure of governing another will, and my muscles extend 
to tips of the animal's ears and to fore-hoofs, instead of stopping at 
feet and hands. 

11 Now in this extension of my volition and my physical frame into 
another animal, my tyrannical instincts- and my desire for heroic 
strength are at once gratified. When the horse ceases to have a will 
of his own and his muscles require no special attention on your part, 
then you may live on horse-back as Wesley did, and write sermons 
or take naps, as you like. The Autocrat, 185S." 

In the act of horse-back riding, man follows the 
motions of the movable basis which supports him. 
Each time the animal upon which he sits alters its 
position, at the instant when its feet, carried forward, 
meet the soil and are thus forced to support the 



HORSE BACK RIDING. 23 

weight of the body, a shock takes place — that is to 
say, that all the movements of impulse given to the 
body of the animal cause a displacement which is 
communicated to the rider. 

These concussions are repeated at intervals more 
or less frequent, according to the rapidity of the 
movement of the animal, and they are more or less 
strong according to the gait of the latter, the nature 
of the soil, the quality of the horse, and the skill of 
the one who rides. 

To proceed in order, we must next, aided by the 
excellent pages of Dr. Chassaigne (which he kindly 
placed at our service), examine the modifications 
which the different gaits of the animal exert on the 
movements communicated to the horseman. 

All the movements of the horse which have pro- 
gression for their object — and these are they which 
we are specially to consider — may be classed in three 
groups and are called natural gaits. They are the 
walk, the trot, and the gallop. All others, such as 
single-foot, Spanish step, ambling, cantering, hunt- 
ing and racing gallops are the results of education 
or bad habits. 

Walking is a natural gait, since the horse always 
rests on the ground. In it we distinguish four differ- 
ent measures or beats. In the first, we have the 
horse carried forward by raising and advancing the 
right fore-foot ; this is followed, at a very short in- 
terval, by the corresponding movement of the left 



24 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

hind-foot, which constitutes the second ; the third is 
seen in the raising and advancing of the left fore- 
foot, and the fourth in the same action in the right 
hind-foot ; but at the moment when the right hind- 
foot is about to touch the ground, the right fore-foot 
leaves it, and the hind-foot is placed in its track, or, 
in the case of some animals, a little in advance. 

During these movements, there is a moment when 
two of the feet are raised from the ground, and the 
horse rests entirely on the other two, and as we have 
already shown that the second movement follows 
very closely upon the first, and that the left hind-foot 
is on the ground at the same moment, or very nearly 
so, as the right fore-foot, it follows that in this gait 
the horse is supported, now on two feet laterally, 
now on two feet diagonally. 

Hence, in this gait the centre of gravity being but 
little or not at all changed, it is the easiest, the rider 
receiving only moderate concussions, repeated at dis- 
tinct intervals, regular, easy to count. This is the 
only gait to ride immediately after meals, and should 
be restricted in certain diseases. 

The trot is a diagonal and jumping gait. If we 
examine the movement of a horse which has just 
started, there is a point of time when, by the force 
gained, the horse is for a moment suspended in the 
air, all four of his feet having quitted the ground. 
He then falls on his right fore-foot at the same time 
that the left hind-foot touches the ground, in order 



HORSE-SACK RIDING. 25 

to acquire a fresh impulse, which throws the weight 
of the body on the left fore-foot and continues the 
movement by means of the right hind-foot. There 
are, therefore, but two measures or beats in the trot. 

The rider receives at each movement rude shak- 
ings, which cause him often to rise in the saddle, and 
the violence of these varies singularly according to 
the nature of the ground, the habit one has of this 
mode of riding, and specially of the quality of the 
horse himself. 

The gallop is a succession of leaps. The horse first 
raises the fore-part of his body, but his fore-feet do 
not both leave the ground at the same time. We 
will suppose the horse starts with the right leg, the 
left follows immediately, and he rests entirely on the 
hind-legs, which, bent like a bow, make a sudden 
spring. The body is thrown forward, and all four of 
the feet are off of the ground, but the shock falls on 
the two fore-feet, lessened by the manner in which 
they are placed upon the ground ; the left one, which 
quitted the ground last, being replaced first, the 
right following immediately, but a little in advance 
to support the left, and to divide the shock. During 
this time the two hind-feet are brought forward just 
under the centre of gravity and near the fore-feet, 
with the right foot a little in advance of the left ; 
there is, therefore, a moment when the four feet touch 
the ground. However, we observed that the hind- 
feet do not both quit the ground at the same mo- 



26 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

ment, but one after the other, as the fore-feet clo, 
and in this movement the right foot is raised and re- 
placed a little in advance of the left, but the differ- 
ence, in this pair at least, is almost insensible ; there- 
fore we may consider the gallop accomplished in 
three measures or beats. 

The first is marked by the left fore-foot touching 
the ground, the second by the right, and the third 
by the fall of the two hind-feet. This cadence is so 
clearly perceptible that it may be musically meas- 
ured. Every one perceives it, and even poets imitate 
it in the construction of their verses : 

Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungnla campum. 

It is understood, of course, that if the horse starts 
from the left fore-foot instead of the right, the same 
movement takes place, but in inverse order. 

In this gait the rider experiences only agreeable 
undulation. We speak in general, for there are 
horses whose gallop is more disagreeable than their 
trot, owing to certain peculiarities of structure or 
vices in the training. 

Thus we see that the movements communicated 
by the horse to the rider vary, as we have said al- 
ready, according to the gait, and also according to 
the animal and the nature of the soil gone over. 

In walking, the cavalier follows the movement of 
the horse almost exactly, and retains the same posi- 
tion, but in trotting it is quite different. When the 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 27 

horse throws himself forward on two feet placed 
diagonally he imparts to the rider an impulse which 
will be suddenly arrested when he comes down upon 
the other two. It is this sudden stop which causes 
the shock, the rebound which we all feel when trot- 
ting on horseback, however gentle it may be, and 
which is repeated at every step. 

The direction of the movement which is communi- 
cated to us is the result of several forces. 

First. It is proved that when two bodies move 
forward, one upon the other, the upper one always 
inclines to go beyond the perpendicular line. 

Secondly. The forward movement of the horse 
takes the rider with it, and urges him in the same 
direction. 

Thirdly. The shock is received at the point of sup- 
port, while the weight in consequence of the velocity 
acquired acts always upon the upper portions of the 
body, and causes them to continue the forward 
movement. 

Fourthly. In the act of leaping, the horse raises the 
body upward as well as forward, and the weight 
which causes it to fall again when the horse marks 
the second measure, that is, makes the second move- 
ment, still more increases the severity of the reac- 
tion. The result of all three forces combined is to 
urge the rider forward on the line of a slight curve. 

In galloping, however, the movement is much 
more simple. It consists almost wholly of a series of 



28 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

oscillations from before backwards, and the reverse, 
corresponding to the raising and falling motion of the 
horse. 

The other gaits which a horse may be taught to 
take, or the precautions which may be necessary to 
avoid them, cause a number of special movements, into 
the details of which we cannot enter. 

Every horse does not communicate absolutely the 
same movement, but the differences are entirely in- 
dividual, and it was long since settled that certain 
varieties are particularly adapted to the saddle ; and, 
lastly, the nature of the ground modifies the move- 
ment communicated, as, for example, a pavement, or 
extremely hard road, returns the whole force of the 
shock, while a softer and more elastic surface greatly 
lessens it, and on heavy ground the greater effort 
necessary on the part of the horse soon fatigues both 
him and his rider. 

Now that we have explained the horse and his 
gaits, and the causes which may modify them, that 
we know, in a word, the movements which are com- 
municated by him, let us see what active part the 
rider takes in horse-back riding. 

As long as the horse remains motionless the rider 
has no movements to make which are peculiar to horse- 
back riding that we need to discuss here, but as soon 
as he moves the active role commences. The im- 
pulse received from the movement of the animal dis- 
turbs and changes his centre of gravity ; he then 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 29 

interferes to check this disturbance of his equilibrium, 
or recover it, if it be lost. Two forces contribute to 
these results : the proper management of the weight 
of the body and the muscular contraction. The cen- 
tre of gravity, which is simply the point of union of 
the forces resulting from weight, contributes greatly to 
the firm maintenance of the seat, if it falls directly 
and vertically upon the saddle, but if it is greatly dis- 
placed, it includes the whole body, and increases the 
effect of the movement communicated to it. 

In walking, which is a regular gait, this displace- 
ment is next to nothing ; therefore we will not insist 
upon the inconsiderable movements caused by it, 
since all the active interference of the rider is confined 
to a small pressure of the knees determined by the 
adductor muscles of the thighs. Nevertheless the 
rider can scarcely avoid a slight swaying of the upper 
portions of the body against which the sacro-lumber 
and long dorsal muscles react, and hold back the 
spine and thorax and with them the centre of gravity 
from their constant tendency to fall forward. 

This almost permanent contraction of the muscles 
brought into action — and which might be termed a 
state of active immobility, since its effect is to fix 
the points upon which it acts and maintain them in 
a quiet state — becomes fatiguing if kept up for any 
length of time. 

The trot is of all gaits the one requiring the great- 
est number of movements on the part of the rider, 



30 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

because it most disturbs the centre of gravity ; but it 
is also, if we except the walk, the one which can be 
indulged in longest, by both horse and rider, be- 
cause of the great number of muscles brought into 
action, and which seem to divide the labor and pre- 
vent fatigue from being felt as soon as when the 
number of muscles is smaller. 

The reader may judge from this explanation of the 
communicated movements how complicated they are, 
and those executed by the rider himself are not less 
so, as the following analysis will show. 

The rider sits on the saddle with his thighs firmly 
pressed against it, the knees also, though not too 
hardly, the leg free, with the foot resting in the 
stirrup in order to aid in supporting the knee, for on 
the fixity of the point of support furnished by the 
knee depends the solidity, as on the proper position 
of the body and the centre of gravity does the firm- 
ness of his seat. This pressure, which should be 
stronger than in walking, since the disturbance is 
greater, is effected as we have seen by the adductors 
of the thighs. 

With the knees so fixed, the trunk no longer obeys 
the forward impulse, or at least the displacement in 
this direction is much diminished, and there is little 
more than slight vertical movement, from below up- 
wards, which takes place when the ischium leaves the 
saddle to fall again by the force of gravity. This is 
not the case with the superior portions of the body, 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 31 

head and thorax, which, endowed, so to speak, with 
movement independent of those of the trunk, seem 
to be subject to some foreign influence, though they 
have in fact received the same impulse, but trans- 
formed and exaggerated by the force of gravity act- 
ing most strongly upon the parts furthest removed 
from the trunk, and the more easily in proportion to 
their mobility. 

This force when strongly applied may cause the 
fall of the rider, but when utilized and applied judi- 
ciously renders his seat firm and secure. 

The sacro-lumbar and long dorsal muscles, by 
drawing the chest and head backwards, cause the 
centre of gravity to fall behind the perpendicular line, 
and oppose a certain resistance to its displacement 
forward. The strength of the muscular contraction, 
in order to effect this object, must be in proportion 
to the impulse imparted to the trunk. 

In galloping, the rider is conscious only of an oscil- 
lation backwards and forwards alternately, and the 
flexors of the thigh, the psoas and sacro-lumbar mus- 
cles are especially called on to restore any consider- 
able displacement, to recover the centre of gravity, 
whether it be thrown forwards or back, according to 
the need, while the adductors fix the knees. 

We may in this way explain the theory of horse-back 
riding in reference to its mechanical action, and if 
from it we may infer that gravity contributes towards 
restoring the equilibrium which it has helped to de- 



3 2 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

stroy, we see also that it is the muscular contraction 
which brings it, and that it also determines the fixed- 
ness of the points of support, and that the muscles 
are the agents of the movements. 

But we should strangely deceive ourselves if we im- 
agined that those muscles only act which have been 
named in studying the movements of the equestrian. 
There is not, perhaps, a single muscle which does not 
come into play in horse-back riding, either for pre- 
venting a displacement or restoring a disturbed equi- 
librium. It is not necessary for them all, however, to 
contract with the same energy, and while some, as the 
adductor muscles of the thigh, the sacro-lumbar and 
long dorsal muscles, may be termed essentials, others 
intervene only accidentally, as it were, or to meet 
certain exigencies, or produce special movements, as 
in the high school exercises, parades, etc. 

Others are assistants merely of the muscles which 
we call essentials, and may be termed auxiliaries, 
and, lastly, we know that when a muscle causes a 
movement in a certain direction, there is always one 
or more the action of which is opposed to it, and 
which are therefore called antagonistic. 



IV. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

'* How much wagon-driving ' granny'-fashion, with swathed legs, 
will give our young men's chests an inch in breadth, or add an 
ounce to their attenuated calves. 

11 If riding on horseback were the fashion, as ft ought to be, New 
York parties would present less frequently the lamentable spectacle 
of cavaliers the same height and not half the breadth of their part- 
ners. The narrow-shouldered, lanky beaux who haunt our ball- 
rooms are standing appeals to the Park Commissioners to do any 
thing that in them lies to bring back amongst us the ancient and 
manly art of riding on horse-back. Nothing will do so much to 
toughen our muscles and inflate our lungs." 

Hygiene, by F. H. Hamilton, M.D., 1859. 

HORSE-BACK riding is specially adapted to the phys- 
ical development of man ; its effects reach every func- 
tion, but as they are each and all inseparably con- 
nected, no one of them can increase in energy without 
augmenting the action of the others. Thus horse-back 
riding rouses the weak ones, restores and maintains 
the equilibrium, and establishes harmony between 
all the physiological phenomena of life. In this lies 
its hygienic and therapeutic power. 

In studying this part of our subject, we propose to 
examine successively the modifications caused by it 
in the exercise of each one of these functions, and 
naturally commence with the act which provokes all 



34 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

others and which is the point of departure — that is, 
muscular contraction. 

I. Muscular contraction. — The will commands, the 
muscle obeys and contracts. What is the agent of 
that contraction ? No one doubts the contractile 
property of muscular fibre, but it is powerless with- 
out the intervention of an external influence, upon 
the nature of which physiologists have long disputed ; 
some giving to nervous excitation an importance 
which it certainly does not deserve, while others 
make the blood play an exaggerated part. 

All our present knowledge of this subject is ad- 
mirably summed up in Gavarret's excellent work, 
" Les Phenomenes Physiques de la Vie/ ' According 
' to the learned professor, the closest possible con- 
nection exists between contractibility and the phe- 
nomena of combustion which takes place in the 
network of the capillaries of the muscles. In fact, 
when a muscular contraction is to be produced, the 
nervous action is confined, so to speak, simply to giv- 
ing an impulsion to the muscle, thus preparing it for 
the action of another agent, the blood. The arterial 
blood flows into and abundantly fills the capillaries 
which permeate the muscle. The oxygen which it 
contains burns with fresh energy the combustible 
materials which it carries ; these are the products of 
digestion, fatty and saccharine matter chiefly, with 
some of the proteine substances. 

The result of these internal combustions is the 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 35 

production of carbonic acid and water, and to these 
may be added azote, urea, or uric acid — which are 
derived from the complete or incomplete oxydization 
of the quaternary substances ; and, lastly, heat is 
engendered. The carbonic acid, the azote, the 
water, urea and uric acid are carried away by the veins 
which spring from the muscle and eliminated from 
the circulation by the different emunctories of the sys- 
tem ; but what becomes of the heat which is liber- 
ated by this combustion ? The temperature of the 
muscle in which these chemical transformations are 
effected is raised, it is true, but this elevation of the 
temperature is far from being in proportion to the 
quantity of substance burned ; but a new phenome- 
non is meanwhile produced : the muscle is con- 
tracted. This contraction of the muscle is of the 
greatest importance, since it balances a certain 
weight- — it represents the result of a process which 
has absorbed the heat that has apparently disap- 
peared. "Thus, while the muscle acts, the heat 
produced by the internal combustion divides itself 
into two complementary parts. One appears as sen- 
sible heat and regulates the temperature of the 
muscle ; the other part, by the intervention of mus- 
cular contractility, is converted into mechanical 
force." 

These phenomena invariably succeed each other, 
and they are the inevitable consequence one of the 
other. The chemical action takes place first and 



36 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

produces the heat ; then the fibres consume a portion 
of this heat, converting it into mechanical force. 

A great number of facts support these propositions, 
and brilliant experiments corroborate them. It has 
been demonstrated that the temperature of a con- 
tracting muscle rises, that it absorbs more oxygen 
and exhales more carbonic acid when in action than 
when in repose, and, lastly, that the energy of the 
contractions is in direct proportion to the activity 
of the internal combustion. The real agent, there- 
fore, of muscular contraction is the heat produced by 
the combustion, of which the muscles are the seat, 
resulting from the conflict between the blood and the 
nervous system. According to Mayer, " a muscle is 
simply an apparatus by which a conversion of forces 
is effected, but it is not the substance by the chemical 
change of which the mechanical effect is produced/ ' 

The contraction of the muscle, then, causes a fresh 
portion of the arterial blood to enter the organ in a 
far greater portion than would flow to it in a state of 
repose, and consequently the capillary circulation of 
the muscle is accelerated. The phenomena of com- 
bustion accomplished, the venous capillaries carry 
away this blood charged with the products of oxydi- 
zation, while the contraction, the result of the chem- 
ical action, aids in the disgorgement of the muscle 
in order to give place to a fresh arterial flood which 
will produce a fresh contraction. Of all the products 
eliminated by this process carbonic acid is the most 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 37 

important and most easily produced by experiments. 
It is evidently formed in the muscle, for the blood 
contains before entering it much less than is found 
after its exit, and it is formed during contraction, 
since after contraction the proportion is increased. 

It has been found that the venous blood contains 
an average of 6-75 parts more of carbonic acid than 
the arterial, when the muscle is in a state of repose, 
and 10-79 when it is in a state of contraction. 

If the action of the muscle is too long continued, 
the increased circulation in its substance is no longer 
sufficient to carry away the products of combustion, 
which goes on incessantly, so they accumulate in the 
muscle and a new product is formed there — lactic 
acid. Then the muscle loses its elasticity, its energy 
and precision ; movement becomes painful, combus- 
tion is less active, there is a decrease in power, and 
we have an exhibition of the phenomenon termed 
fatigue. Repose, by allowing the venous blood to 
carry the products injurious to the economy, by 
lessening the intensity of the combustion, which is 
the cause of the trouble, removes all these symptoms, 
which might be produced, on the other hand, in an 
animal in a state of repose, by a simple injection of 
lactic acid into the substance of the muscle. 

This activity of the circulation has another object 
and effect, that of carrying to the organ a still 
larger quantity of nutritive matter, which it assimi- 
lates. It is shown by experiment that a muscle ex- 



3 3 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

ercised regularly and moderately, increases in volume 
and in strength. At the same time, while gaining in 
size it improves in quality. The fibre has more tone, 
is more elastic, more patient, and more precise in its 
action. All these qualities are developed to their 
highest degree by horse-back riding. This is an in- 
contestable fact which we may see proved every day 
by riders, who cause their horses to execute the most 
complicated movements often impossible to demon- 
strate ; when we see them attain, by force of habit, 
the power of continuing for long hours exercises 
which they could not endure for a tenth part of the 
time when first beginning the practice, and see them, 
though frail and delicate in appearance, endowed with 
the most surprising muscular energy. 

Horse-back riding does not indeed develop such 
athletic forms as result from some gymnastic exer- 
cises. It brings a great number of muscles into 
action, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes succes- 
sively ; it does not require great power in action, but, 
continued and often repeated, increasing according to 
its needs. It would be useless to produce large and 
powerful muscles were they not resistant and patient. 
Here the muscular fibre trains itself rather than grows. 

Let us observe here, that the muscles which act 
directly in horse-back riding are not the only ones to 
participate in the advantages resulting from it. In 
those which act antagonistically the same tonicity is 
perceived ; they acquire spring, as it were. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 39 

Horse-back riding is therefore a general education 
of all the muscles much superior to that of fencing, 
for example, which includes that of only one member 
totally neglecting the other. This explains why the 
right arm is more developed than the left, in fencing 
masters and those who practice fencing much, and 
that the right shoulder is so much higher than the 
other — the passes and thrusts being more frequent 
with the right hand than with the left. On the other 
hand, the left leg is much more developed than the 
right, because upon it rests the whole weight of the 
body. 

2. Circulation. — We have seen how the circulation 
of blood is accelerated in a muscle during contrac- 
tion, and we have noted also the great number of 
muscles which participate in horse-back riding ; it is 
not difficult, therefore, to conceive what an influence 
it might exert upon the phenomena of circulation. 
The impulse originating in the muscles extends to 
the whole circulatory apparatus, the blood moves 
everywhere with new force, the capillaries are in- 
vaded on every side by the torrent seeking an outlet, 
the swollen veins pour their surplus into the heart, 
the general commotion communicates itself to the 
central organ of the circulation, the venous blood is 
driven into the lungs, where it is exposed to the 
closest possible contact with the air, and there parts 
with its useless constituents, imbibing oxygen in their 
stead, and, impelled by a fresh wave, it hastens back 



40 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

to the heart, from which it again at once departs to 
repair the losses which the arterial blood has suffered, 
and to cause a new muscular contraction. The 
whole system is in action, and the blood penetrates 
abundantly and fills the entire vascular system, where 
before it entered insufficiently and with difficulty. 

It is interesting to study, first of all, the manner in 
which the blood acts in the capillaries. A knowledge 
of the facts will enable us to explain a number of 
phenomena which we shall notice further on. 

In the structure of the vessels which form the con- 
tinuations of the smaller arteries, muscular fibre pre- 
dominates. The play of these fibres, which differ 
essentially in their anatomical elements from those 
which we have heretofore studied, is independent of 
the will. It is governed by a special system of 
nerves, springing from the grand sympathetic and 
also some of the spinal nerves — the vaso-motors — and 
according as these nerves are in action or inaction the 
capillaries contract and dilate. The fibre cells are 
not found in the minutest ramifications of these ves- 
sels, but they are replaced by an elastic tissue which 
follows the modifications of the muscular tissue and 
contracts or augments the calibre of the canals which 
it forms. Moral as well as physical impressions cause 
important modifications in the circulation of the 
capillaries. Every one is cognizant of the flush and 
the paleness which accompany anger or shame, pain 
or pleasure. But the vaso-motors are yet much more 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 4* 

sensitive to the influence of heat and cold. From cold 
the muscular fibre contracts and lessens the calibre of 
the vessels, the blood circulates less abundantly in 
their cavities ; and paleness of the tissues which they 
traverse and a lower temperature are the conse- 
quences. 

Heat, on the contrary, seems to paralyze these 
nerves, and the muscular fibre no longer reacts against 
the pressure from within, which, encountering less 
resistance, dilates the vessel just in proportion. The 
parts become red, swollen, gorged with blood, and 
the temperature is increased. It is specially on the 
surface and the extremities that we may observe 
these phenomena, because the medium in which we 
live is daily subjected to numerous influences which 
lower the temperature ; it borrows, so to speak, from 
the heat of the body with which it comes in contact. 

The slight conductibility of the human body pre- 
serves the internal organs from these daily losses, and 
the blood which renews itself continually maintains at 
the surface a relative warmth. But still the sensation 
of cold causes the contraction of the capillaries over 
the whole surface of the body, and the circulation is 
enfeebled just in proportion to the energy, and, per 
contra, it is frequently accelerated in the substance of 
the organs contained in the visceral cavities. If the 
cooling is slight, if the contraction in the capillaries is 
infinitesimal, there is only a slight increase of tension 
in the great arteries ; but if the capillary net-work is 



42 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

considerably contracted, the quantity of blood re- 
maining the same, the arterial tension can only check 
the circulation to a certain extent, and for the double 
reason that the circulation is less active and the 
quantity of blood sent to the surface, where it would 
be cooled, smaller, its temperature rises, and this 
heat paralyzes the vaso-motors which govern the 
capillaries of the viscera ; the calibre of these vessels 
perceptibly augments, and the organs which they 
permeate are gorged with blood. This is the ordi- 
nary cause of visceral congestions. Such at any rate 
is their fatal mechanism — and it is explained by the 
inertia of the vaso-motors. 

We have already seen how muscular exercise in- 
creases and re-establishes the surface circulation by 
augmenting the internal combustion, and thus giving 
an impulse to the blood, accelerating its motion ; and 
by raising the temperature of the surface of the body, 
all these influences combined triumph over the con- 
tracted vessels, they gradually relax, the blood re- 
enters, and with it heat. This process continues until 
the tension is equal or nearly so in all the capillaries 
of the body. The blood rushes into them and no 
longer gorges the viscera; these lose their congestion 
in consequence, the vaso-motors come out of their 
torpid condition in proportion as the heat circulates, 
instead of concentrating in the centres. 

What we have just said concerning muscular exercise 
in general applies especially to horse-back riding, and 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 43 

whether it removes congestion or causes the circula- 
tion to increase in parts which are anemic, it always 
favors the exercise of a function of the highest impor- 
tance, since its deficiency in one case and its exagger- 
ation in the other are the conditions from which mor- 
bid phenomena spring. 

Haller says, " Equitatio parum pulsum auget neque 
calefacit." In fact, the heart beats more quickly 
from the quickened motion of the blood, and the pulse, 
which is the echo of the movement of the heart, marks 
the amount of the increase. 

Nick gives his observations of the variations of the 
pulse caused by horse-back riding as follows : the 
rider at a walk has his pulse quickened from fifteen 
to twenty pulsations in a minute, and in trotting the 
increase is greater, amounting to forty-two beats a 
minute more than before the exercise. 

In my researches on this subject, I arrived at nearly 
the same conclusions; I remarked also that the in- 
crease was greater in beginners than in those some- 
what habituated to riding. 

The pulse at the same time beats with more force, 
it is full and hard, and at first we think the arterial 
tension is augmented. It is well, however, to avoid 
falling into this error, as it might be of great impor- 
tance in the therapeutic application we might be 
tempted to make of horse-back riding. Here, our 
senses are unfaithful, they deceive us. The sphyg- 
mometer of Marev reveals the true condition. The 



44 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

instrument shows a diminution of arterial tension ; it 
could not be otherwise, for the blood in the great 
arterial trunks, finding less resistance from the dilated 
capillaries at the surface of the body, flows more 
freely. The result of this is less tension and less 
resistance to the ventricular contraction ; this is 
effected more brusquely, and the shock is perceived 
more distinctly by the finger. It is this instantane- 
ousness — which does not affect the circulatory ap- 
paratus — which causes the apparent fulness of the 
pulse. 

The second proposition of Haller is equally true — - 
neque calefacit — but we must be careful to give it the 
meaning attached to it by its author. Struck by the 
increase of temperature which usually accompanies 
fever, the physicians of former times did not separate 
the idea of heat from that of fever, and the great 
physiologists, in adopting their language, have per- 
petuated their error. Horse-back riding certainly in- 
creases the temperature of the body, for we have 
shown that a portion of the heat produced by the 
combustion which takes place in the muscles is ren- 
dered sensible to thermoscopic measurement, but 
this heat is not fever. It is true that on dismount- 
ing, if the exercise has been somewhat prolonged, a 
slight trembling is felt in all the limbs ; at the same 
time the skin is rosy and moist, a gentle perspiration 
exuding from every pore, but instead of the suffering 
produced by fever there is a sense of comfort. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 45 

The increase of temperature is especially remark- 
able at the surface when it may be relatively high ; 
but it is far from attaining the same degree in the 
central organs, it is there scarcely perceptible. The 
natural cavities are the parts to be examined, be- 
cause their temperature approaches nearest to that of 
the internal organs. By taking the average of the 
results which have been furnished, we find : 

Temperature of the axilla increased i° 

" mouth " o°.6 

The elevation of temperature is less, the nearer we 
approach the centre, and it is probable that there the 
increase would not be more than one or two tenths of 
a degree. 

These phenomena do not persist after the exercise 
has ceased, and the system returns after a certain 
time to its normal condition. The frequency of the 
pulse, however, is perceptible yet after half an hour 
of rest, and sometimes even longer. 

^.Respiration: — Horse-back riding causes great 
differences in respiration, as well as in the circulation. 

All gaits, however, do not have the same effect 
upon it. The walk, for example, affects it very 
slightly; with the trot and gallop it is far different. 
We have already seen the action of the diaphragm. 
Occupied in assisting the muscles of the abdominal 
walls to confine the viscera and repress their move- 
ments, shaken as they are by the shocks of the trot. 



46 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

it cannot take a large part in the act of respiration. 
By its contraction, however, the thoracic cavity is 
enlarged and gives entrance to a greater quantity of 
air. The diaphragm takes part also to some extent, 
though passively, in the act of expiration. The 
viscera pass on to it the shock received by them at 
each measure of the trot, which it resists, thereby 
causing a slight relaxation of its fibres ; from this fol- 
lows a contraction in the thoracic cavity, and the ex- 
pulsion of a certain quantity of air. It may also, 
when the motion of the horse is very gentle and the 
rider makes no muscular resistance, take a more 
active part in the respiration. 

It is to the inspiratory muscles and to the fact that 
the respiration becomes costal, that the increased 
capacity of the lungs is due. The diaphragm being 
contracted and the ribs powerfully raised, the chest 
finds itself considerably dilated, and the air fully fills 
the lungs. By the relaxation of the muscles, the ribs m 
descend, the capacity of the lungs is diminished, and 
the vitiated air which they contained escapes. 

But it is possible to produce a contrary effect.. The 
violent reaction of the trot of certain animals causes 
the whole mass of the abdominal viscera to be thrust 
forcibly against the diaphragm, thereby brusquely 
expelling the air from the lungs. Respiration then 
becomes painful and synchronous with the gait of 
the horse, each expiration being short and sono- 
rous. The inspiratory muscles are in a state of per- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 47 

manent contraction, keeping the ribs constantly 
raised and scarcely yielding to the weight of the 
chest, which at every shock, acted upon by gravity, 
slightly falls. This condition causes an effort which 
cannot be kept up long, and symptoms of intoxica- 
tion caused by the carbonic acid gas soon make their 
appearance ; for in this case the change of air which 
should be effected in the lungs is much less complete 
than when the inspirations are large and deep, and 
fatigue soon supervenes. It was to soften the shock 
and avoid these inconveniences that the English way 
of rising in the saddle was introduced, which makes 
the riding a hard trotting horse less tiresome. 

In a rapid gallop, another phenomenon presents 
itself — the difficulty of respiration. This is explained 
by the greater pressure on the air contained in the 
thoracic cavity, thereby requiring greater efforts for 
expiration ; and it is to break this external pressure, 
which, confining the air in the chest, hinders its exit, 
that jockeys lean over their horse's neck and wear 
large visors on their caps. 

In studying muscular contraction, we have seen the 
blood which brings the fuel for combustion load itself 
with the carbonic acid and the vapor of water pro- 
duced by the oxydization of the ternary substances. 
These gases, if left to accumulate in the blood, imme- 
diately become an obstacle to the performance of its 
functions ; the veins collect this blood which has lost 
its virtue and become useless, and carry it to the 



48 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

different emunctories, where it is purified, and to the 
lungs, where it is endowed with a new life. But by 
this act of muscular exercise the proportion of hurt- 
ful principles has increased, the need of active ele- 
ments is still greater, that which was before sufficient 
to meet the demand is now too little, and the activity 
of the respiratory phenomena should correspond with 
the respiratory. The surface of contact between the 
blood and the air has enlarged, the number of respir- 
atory movements has increased, the air expired con- 
tains more carbonic acid than when in a state of 
repose, and it has at the same time lost a greater 
quantity of oxygen, and it retains a larger amount of 
azote which is derived from the combustion of the 
quaternary substances, and this exaggeration of the 
respiratory phenomena has a limit. If the internal 
combustion is always effected with the same inten- 
sity, the moment comes when the circulation is no 
longer able to carry away the products of combus- 
tion which accumulate in the muscle, and end by 
hindering the chemical action ; at the same time 
bringing with it that peculiar sensation known as 
fatigue. The phenomena do not cease here, for if 
the exercise is prolonged beyond reason, the carbonic 
acid does not all escape through the lungs ; a certain 
quantity remains in the blood which returns to the 
heart, and mingling with the arterial blood, produces 
the accidents which we call cephalalgia, dyspnoea, 
etc. 



, 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 49 

It is easy to explain the activity of the respiration 
while riding. The normal number of respirations in 
a minute is set down at 18 in the adult, but I have 
found it to be 28 to 32 after a fifteen-minute French 
trot. The English trot produces a little smaller 
result. Under certain particular conditions, the num- 
ber has risen to 55 in a minute. In a very rapid gait 
the respiration becomes short and frequent. 

Mr. Smith has thus tabulated the effect of mus- 
cular exercise upon the quantity of air which enters 
the lungs at each respiratory movement : 

Lying down 1 -oo 

Standing 1-38 

Walking (a mile an hour) 1-90 

Riding (at a walk) 2-20 

Walking (two miles an hour) 2-76 

Riding (at a gallop) 3 • 16 

Riding (at a trot) 4-05 

Swimming 4-32 

Running (seven miles an hour) 7-00 

If it is conceded that a man takes half a litre of 
air into his lungs at each inspiration when at rest, he 
would take nearly double as much when walking his 
horse — or one litre ; two when trotting ; but in a 
gallop, when the reaction is a little less than trotting, 
he would take one and a half. Enlargement of the 
thoracic cavity is often observed in horsemen ; this 



SO HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

peculiarity which predisposes to haematosis, is, accord- 
ing to Woillez, to be attributed rather to the action 
of the general muscular system than to the muscles 
of the thorax or those of the upper portions of the 
body. 

And, lastly, there is a phenomenon which cannot 
justly be separated from respiration ; it is the cuta- 
neous exhalation, which is sensibly affected by 
horse-back riding. In fact, the increase of the sur- 
face circulation, by bringing to it a greater quantity 
of blood, favors cutaneous respiration. The evapora- 
tion of the vapor of water and the exhalation of 
carbonic acid are increased, and more oxygen is ab- 
sorbed by the skin. As we have already remarked 
concerning the circulation, respiration becomes grad- 
ually normal with repose. 

4. Nervous influence. — If ever a subject has been 
much discussed, much experimented and written 
upon, it is certainly that which treats of nervous 
action. What is its nature, its function, and how 
does it act ? These are the questions we are 
still led to ask, for if light has been thrown upon 
some points, there are others which still remain in 
darkness. 

Physiology shows us the arterial blood penetrating 
the organs, and there undergoing a transformation 
into venous blood, and by this change performing a 
work in relation with the parts to which it penetrates. 
We have shown that the chemical action produces the 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 51 

contraction which has for its result a mechanical 
force, and we shall demonstrate that the same thing 
takes place in the nervous system ; and that it causes 
nervous action. But while the muscular action is 
transformed into an external force, the nervous action 
exhausts itself entirely in the interior of the economy, 
and reduces itself to a simple intervention in the 
functions of the organs which it animates. 

The arterial blood, red and rich in oxygen, pene- 
trates the nervous system, while the venous blood 
comes out of it black and charged with carbonic acid. 
This incontestable fact alone proves that in a state 
of repose the organic materials of the blood burn in 
the capillaries of the nerves and nervous centres, as 
it does in the vascular net-work of all the tissues of 
the organism. 

When the nervous action is violent, as in anger, or 
when the action is long continued, as in study, there 
is an increase of the temperature of the body, and as 
in muscular contraction, the nervous system when in 
action absorbs oxygen and exhales carbonic acid; it 
becomes fatigued and gives an acid reaction. It is 
easy to convince ourself that after severe brain-work, 
the proportion of urea in the urine is greatly in- 
creased. 

Schiff remarks that when a nerve has been excited 
from any cause, the propagation of this excitement 
is accompanied by an appreciable elevation of tem- 
perature along the course of the nerve. 



52 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

Vulpian has shown that the nervous fibre has a 
peculiar action which he calls neurility. According 
to this author, the action of the nervous cell takes 
place only under the influence of the neurility of the 
fibre, and the nervous centres lose all their activity as 
soon as they cease to receive arterial blood. Ner- 
vous power is the result of the action of the blood on 
the brain and spinal marrow. 

The same writer says again, we are led to the inev- 
itable conclusion that neurility is the distinct fun- 
damental independent physiological attribute of the 
nervous fibre, and that the existence of this property 
is inseparable from the integrity of the structure and 
nutrition of the anatomical elements. 

Gavarret thus explains the nervous action : " Like 
the muscular fibre during contraction, the nervous 
fibre under a direct excitant, or when propagating 
some communicated excitement, is perceptibly in- 
creased in heat. In the nervous as in the muscular 
system, this momentary elevation of temperature is in 
reality perhaps nothing more than the result of the 
momentary increase of internal combustion. In view 
of these facts, we cannot but recognize that neurility 
and muscular contractility have the same relation to 
heat. The activity of the nervous system and the 
intensity of the internal combustion correspond to 
each other and increase and diminish together. In 
the nervous centres the result of combustion is trans- 
formed into neurility, the different nervous filaments 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. S3 

collect this neurility, and, dispersed in all directions, it 
goes to increase the activity of the different organs of 
the system ; . . . . thus in the animal there are 
three dynamic manifestations, the production of heat, 
muscular contraction, and nervous activity, which are 
derived directly from the action of the oxygen of the 
air upon the organic materials of the blood."" 

The nervous action simply gives the impulse to the 
phenomena of combustion ; once commenced, the 
action of the oxygen upon the materials of the blood 
continues and produces an effect out of proportion 
with the primitive expenditure of the impulsive 
force. 

How can we refuse to recognize the immense influ- 
ence that the circulation exercises over the production 
of nervous phenomena ? 

Then comes the question, if there does exist so in- 
timate a relation between these two functions, circu- 
lation and innervation, within what limits are they 
exercised, and in what proportion does the disturb- 
ance of one react upon the other ? However, what 
seems incontestable is that the nervous tissue is sub- 
ject to the same laws as the other tissues of the 
organism ; like them, it is nourished, expands, and is 
regenerated. The blood is the agent of these trans- 
formations, and the circulation is effected in them in 
the same manner as everywhere else, is subject to the 
same modifying causes. The integrity of this func- 
tion depends upon the integrity of the nervous ac- 



54 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

tion. But if for a reason which it may be difficult 
to explain, the nutrition of the anatomical elements 
is insufficient, or the circulation is not normal, 
whether there is anaemia or hyperaemia of the nervous 
substances, these dynamic disturbances appear as ner- 
vous disturbances, which often constitute a patholog- 
ical condition. 

Horse-back riding, as we have seen, is one of the 
most energetic modifiers of the circulation ; it dis- 
tributes the blood equally to every part of the capil- 
lary net-work, giving to each part its due proportion, 
by maintaining a due tension in every part, by equal- 
izing the temperature ; it prevents equally anaemia 
and hyperaemia, and sanguineous stagnation, by the 
impulsion which it gives to the circulatory phenom- 
ena, and aids nutrition by the acceleration of the 
respiratory and digestive phenomena. It is by its 
effect upon the reactions of the blood to the nervous 
system that horse-back riding produces such a happy 
influence. 

5. Digestion. — The effect of horse-back riding 
upon the functions of the system, is especially re- 
markable upon that of digestion. It stimulates the 
appetite — excites and perfects digestion, favors ab- 
sorption — in fact, to use a trivial expression, " it 
makes the bits go down." These are not the only 
results of the new energy imparted to the functions 
which we have studied, and all of which concur in 
the accomplishment of this special one ; it exercises a 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 55 

special influence upon the muscular fibre of the coats 
of the stomach and the intestines. These viscera 
may be considered as fairly suspended in the abdom- 
inal cavity where they are barely held and limited 
in their movements by the folds of the peritoneum. 
Each shock from the horse shakes them and makes 
them to roll as it were upon each other, and causes 
the changes in the relations of the convolutions of 
the intestines. These shocks and knocks and rub- 
bings act as a mechanical excitant upon the muscular 
fibre, which in consequence contracts with more 
energy, preserving, however, the peculiar character 
of the fibre-cells — that is, of contracting slowly and 
successively ; the action of the fibre being increased 
and the peristaltic contractions acquiring more power, 
there results from it a more intimate mixture of 
the juices and aliments in the stomach, a more per- 
fect chymification of the food, and a more prompt 
and complete absorption of matters already digested ; 
and, lastly, all those which have as yet escaped the 
process are brought into the portions of the intestines 
where their metamorphosis is effected. The stomach 
emptied of food calls for a new supply ; hunger re- 
minds us of this need, while a sensation of weight in 
the anal region precedes defecation, an act by which 
the remnants of the preceding digestion are expelled, 
in order to give place to a new portion of matter 
which may have in part escaped the digestive process. 
The contractions of the great intestines by accelerat- 



56 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

ing the natural movement of its contents greatly favor 
defecation. 

But the mechanical excitement of the muscular 
fibres would soon exhaust its contractility if the 
natural physiological agent, the blood, did not come 
to its assistance. Every thing, in fact, combines to 
cause it to flow into the alimentary canal — the pres- 
ence of food, the increased activity of the circulation 
caused by riding, the contraction due to the mechan- 
ical excitement in the fibre cellule, and fed by com- 
bustion. At the same time the glands, and the entire 
secretory apparatus depending on digestion, gorged 
with blood, furnish abundant material for their por- 
tion of the work, and lead powerfully with the mus- 
cular contractions in the elaboration of the materials 
for new tissues. 

The blood which enters the stomach penetrates also 
the nerves which control it, and checks the fantasies 
of this capricious organ. 

The increased circulation has another effect, that 
of promoting the venous absorption ; and the greater 
pressure on the chyme in the alimentary canal, in con- 
sequence of the contraction of the muscular fibre, 
greatly favors its passage into the chyliferous vessels. 

When the mechanical excitement of riding, like 
that of the will, causes the fibre-cell to act, it acquires 
more tonicity, the contractions cease to be languid 
and furnish more effective aid to the work of diges- 
tion. The effect of riding upon this last differs ac- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 57 

cording as the exercise is taken before or after eat- 
ing. 

In fact, if we ride when the stomach is empty, or 
nearly so — for the organ is never absolutely in a state 
of vacuity — the intestinal digestion is materially slack- 
ened, and the exercise would hasten the transformation 
and absorption of the substances which might be in 
the stomach intestine, and induce hunger. But if we 
ride immediately after eating, the diaphragm and the 
abdominal muscles would compress the intestines and 
the stomach, and might induce vomiting, or at least 
regurgitation, while at the end of an hour or two the 
fulness of the stomach would be relieved and no incon- 
venience felt. 

6. Nutrition. — The nutrition of the individual, the 
consequence, nay, more, the object of all the other 
functions which we have examined, is at once the 
cause and the effect of all the physiological functions. 
The impairment of any one of them reacts upon this 
as the execution of the functions depends upon ana- 
tomical elements. 

The blood which circulates in the vessels is the 
agent of all nutrition. It is composed of two parts : 
the one fluid, the plasma, containing the albuminoid 
substances, the products of digestion ; this alone is 
capable of traversing the walls of the capillaries, and 
placing itself in direct contact with the tissues ; the 
other is solid, in the form of globules, and, by reason 
of its bulk, could not pass through the vessels : both 



5? HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

concur equally in producing the phenomenon of nutri- 
tion, but in different manner. The plasma consists 
principally of water, which serves as a vehicle for the 
albumen and fibrin, and combines with the anatom- 
ical elements of the tissues, incarnates itself, so to 
speak, and is metamorphosed with the elements which 
it has just regenerated. It is thus that musculine, ner- 
vine, osseine, chondrine, etc., are formed, all derived 
from the albumen and fibrin, transformed by fixing of 
a certain quantity of the equivalents of oxygen and 
hydrogen in the proportions of water. In the same 
way the saccharine matter in solution, fatty matters in 
emulsion and mineral substances in the form of salts 
in solution, pass through the walls of the capillaries, 
and are carried wherever they are required. The 
organized materials of the tissues, on their part, are 
subjected to oxidation from the oxygen exhaled 
from the vessels with the plasma, an oxidation more 
or less complete, which transforms them, renders them 
unfit to do their duty, and they return to the circu- 
latory mass, and are carried by the veins to the different 
emunctories to be eliminated in the form of creatine, 
urea, uric acid, choleic acid, etc. Such is the process 
of assimilation and elimination which takes place in 
the tissues, and it is active just in proportion to the 
circulation it augments or diminishes. It is particu- 
larly in the muscles that this incontestable fact may 
be seen. 

It is in the rich vascular net-work of the circulatory 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 59 

apparatus that the phenomena peculiar to them are 
subject to considerable exaggerations in order to sup- 
ply the combustion rendered necessary by the con- 
tractions, though in such cases assimilation is carried 
on faster than the waste, and the muscle is better 
nourished when active than when in repose. This 
explains the development of the muscles under the 
influence of exercise. 

The protean substances are not intended only to 
supply the materials necessary for the renewal of the 
tissues ; they do not penetrate to every part of the 
vascular net-work ; a certain portion remains in the ves- 
sels which has another destination. "The albumin- 
ous aliments play a double action in the economy ; 
when once introduced into the circulation, they divide 
into two portions : one is assimilated and serves to 
renew the tissues, and the other is burned with the 
fatty and saccharine matters of the blood. These 
internal combustions produce a reserve force which 
furnishes the sensible heat necessary to maintain the 
temperature of the body, and the heat which is 
transformed into muscular power. " (Gavarret.) 

The blood, which incessantly loses in the processes 
of nutrition, combustion, and secretion, is regenerated 
by the products of digestion which are being constantly 
poured into its mass by the veins and the thoracic 
canal, and the activity of nutrition therefore keeps 
pace with that of digestion. 

The red globules play an important part in the 



60 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

phenomenon of nutrition. It is generally admitted 
that they are formed in the vessels of all parts of the 
system. They are born, live, and die there. The 
albuminoid substances introduced into the blood by the 
digestive process first undergo a transformation by pass- 
ing into the globular state, and then they form a new 
anatomical element, the globule which is nourished 
like the others and is the seat of the double process of 
assimilation and separation. Whether it is destroyed 
in the physiological state is not known, but under 
certain special pathologic conditions — hibernation, for 
example — it evidently disappears. Suspended in the 
plasma in immediate contact with the albuminoid 
substances and the oxygen which they draw from the 
lungs, the globules are in the conditions best adapted 
for the most perfect nutrition. But in proportion as 
they assimilate, they also disintegrate ; and fibrin, the 
first degree of oxidation of the albumen, is the re- 
sult of this separation. It is this fibrin engendered 
by the globules, dissolved by the albuminous fluid, 
which exhales from the vessels and goes to renovate 
the tissues. 

Physiologists have long recognized in the globules 
the property of fixing oxygen. This gas seems to be 
condensed in the globules, as it gives the same reac- 
tion as ozone, which is nothing but condensed oxygen. 
It is this oxygen which gives to the globules their 
bright red color ; it is the oxygen which, by combining 
with the albuminous substances, transforms them into 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 61 

fibrin ; it is it also which burns the hydro-carbonated 
saccharine and fatty matters of the blood, maintaining 
the animalhe at, engendering nervous action, and caus- 
ing movement. But when it has furnished all these 
oxidations, where it is replaced in the blood by the 
products of combustion which dissolve themselves in 
the serum, taking the natural forms — water, azote, or 
in the form of salts — carbonates, the globules be- 
come dark red in color, and wither until they come in 
contact with the air in the lungs, when they seem to 
live again by charging themselves with oxygen. 

We can see the importance of these red globules of 
the blood ; they are the soul of nutrition, since they 
engender the fibrin, which is the element of a great 
number of the tissues, and store up the oxygen, which 
is the agent of all combustions. In a state of health, 
their number is nearly uniform, but under certain 
morbid influences it considerably diminishes ; they 
are destroyed and not renewed. Then nutrition is 
insufficient. But of these two phenomena, which is 
cause or which is effect, whether the failure is in the 
nutrition or in the globules, we cannot tell ; they are 
sure to accompany each other. 

When we see the muscular contractions caused by 
horse-back exercise give the impulse to the circu- 
latory phenomena, and thence to the respiratory and 
digestive ; when we see the chest expand and inspire 
two litres of air instead of one half of one, the in- 
creased amount of food, the development of the mus- 



62 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

cles, etc., how can we refuse to admit that the red 
globules — these other anatomical elements which are 
in most favorable conditions for nutrition — also feed 
and assimilate, and if in certain cases their number is 
insufficient for the needs of the system, that new 
ones are formed and their proportion increased ? 

We have already had occasion to refer to the role 
filled by the hydro-carbonaceous elements of the 
food, as well as the saccharine and fatty matter ; 
those which in no way serve for the support or repa- 
ration of the tissues of which they form a constituent 
part are burned by the oxygen, in order to produce 
heat and movement. If these aliments are in excess, 
this excess is retained in the system, and the cellular 
tissue is fixed upon whenever it is found as the place 
of deposit, and thus adipose tissue is formed ; the 
saccharine as well as fatty matters taking part in 
its formation. But this tissue has not its own proper 
life ; when once formed, it remains as it is, is not 
assimilated, nor does it disintegrate ; it increases or 
diminishes by juxtaposition or consumption, according 
to circumstances ; it is a sort of reserve which is 
drawn upon to supply insufficient alimentation and to 
establish a kind of balance between the phenomena 
of nutrition and waste. It is easy to conceive the 
variable influence which horse-back riding might 
exert upon the production of this tissue, according to 
the expenditure of force which it might require and 



HORSE BACK RIDING. 63 

the quantity of elements furnished to the internal 
combustion. 

7. Secretion. — Horse-back riding does not exert 
a special and direct influence upon the secretions ; 
their activity is often only the consequence of the ac- 
tivity of other physiological functions, and as they do 
not concern our therapeutics, we will pass them with 
a simple mention. Perspiration is the result of in- 
creased surface circulation, and increases or diminishes 
with it. Trotting induces it more than any other 
gait in riding. 

The mouth becomes dry in horse-back exercise, in 
consequence of the rapid evaporation caused by the 
frequent passage of the air through the buccal cavity, 
due to the acceleration of the respiration. The sali- 
vary glands are not excited as in mastication, and no 
longer furnish sufficient saliva. As for the secretions 
of the glands of the stomach and intestines, of the 
liver and the pancreas, they regulate themselves ac- 
cording to the needs of the digestion. 

The activity of the cutaneous and pulmonary ex- 
halation, the increase of perspiration and fluid secre- 
tions in general, decrease in proportion to the quan- 
tity of fluid eliminated by the kidneys. As to the 
urea which they contain, numerous experiments tend 
to show that muscular exercise, even when carried to 
excess, does not materially increase or diminish it. 
The presence of free azote in the expired air explains 
this fact, as this gas is the result of the complete 



64 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

combustion of the azotic substances, while the urea is 
the product of incomplete combustion, as the uric 
acid which always diminishes by exercise and increases 
from inaction. These phenomena are, indeed, in per- 
fect ratio to the activity of the internal combustion, of 
which they are but the consequence. 

The excitement of the muscular fibre of the bladder 
by the shocks resulting of the motion of the horse 
causes its contraction, and if it contains a certain quan- 
tity of fluid, the desire for micturition soon makes itself 
felt. Horse-back riding provokes it.* 

* De Tequitation. Chassaigne. Paris, 1870. 



V. 

THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

Mr. Budgell, in The Spectator, 1711, writes : " For my own part, I 
intend to hunt twice a week, during my stay with Sir Roger, and 
shall prescribe the moderate use of this exercise to all my country 
friends as the best kind of physic for mending a bad constitution 
and preserving a good one. 

" I cannot do this better than out of the following lines of Dryden's 
— Cymon and Iphigenia : 

1 ' ' The first physicians by debauch were made ; 
Excess began, and Sloth sustains the trade. 
By chase, our long-lived fathers earned their food ; 
Toil strung the nerves and purified the blood : 
But we, their sons, a pampered race of men, 
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten. 
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought 
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. 
The wise for cure on exercise depend : 
God never made his work for man to mend.' " 

Let us now study the relations of horse-back riding 
to the general health and to certain diseased con- 
ditions of the system. That it can aid greatly in re- 
establishing the general health and curing disease, is 
easy not only of comprehension, but of demonstra- 
tion. If — and this we have already proved — this exer- 
cise be capable of increasing the activity of the organs 
of nutrition, of diminishing both the tendency to a 
plethoric condition itself, of aiding the excretion of 



66 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

superfluous or extraneous material, and tending to 
remove, by increasing the activity of the viscera, 
bodies which obstruct them, it must be a powerful 
remedy. 

Both reason and practical experiment demonstrate 
in the most complete manner that the efficacy of the 
substances employed by the physician consists above 
all things in this : that these substances possess the 
power either of calming super-excited or disordered 
functions, or of increasing the activity of those organs 
that perform their functions incompletely or too tar- 
dily. 

The most efficacious and reliable medicines are, it 
is well known, those which influence the circulation 
and excite moderate action of the skin (perspiration). 
The knowledge of this fact is so general, that the 
farmer, when his horse is stiff from work or cold, does 
not permit him to rest, but exercises him until a 
moderate degree of sweating is produced. 

The effects produced by horse-back riding of course 
vary, and should be graduated or adapted to the 
wants of the economy or the requirements of the 
disease : the walk, the trot, the gallop, as we have 
previously learned, affect the system in different ways 
and degrees, as do the amount and character of the 
exercise. 

Some horses are far harder to ride than others, 
both temper and manner of moving influencing this ; 
the mode of riding, the habits of the rider, and the 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 67 

exercises in which he indulges, will all strongly 
modify the effect produced on the system. 

The results derived from horse-back riding are 
therefore dependent upon and modified by the pace, 
the duration and character of the exercise, the nature 
and gait of the horse, the method of riding, and 
habits of the rider. 

General Diseases. 

I. Morbid states of the blood. 

a. Plethora (excessive fulness of blood). — This con- 
dition, seemingly intermediate between health and 
disease, consists in either an excessive amount of 
blood or a superabundance of red globules — the 
quantity being normal — that is an over-richness. 

It is recognized by the redness of the face, caused 
by the distension of the capillaries, especially those 
of the cheeks, lips, and mucous membranes, by 
the strong resistant pulse and the turgid condition 
of the veins. It is often accompanied by loss of 
appetite, constipation, a tendency to hemorrhages 
and congestions, and a state of indolence and lassi- 
tude. Its causes are to be found in, first, a too great 
activity of the nutritive functions, aided by too free 
a mode of living, and, second, in the want of sufficient 
exercise. 

While physicians are at variance respecting the 
special treatment to be adopted in these cases, they 



68 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

nevertheless all concur in recommending a less nutri- 
tious diet and exercise. 

b. Anaemia (poverty of blood). — The etymological 
signification of this term does not accurately describe 
the condition, for we do not mean a total absence of 
blood, but a lowering of its quality, a decrease in the 
proportion of the red globules. This condition is 
caused by insufficient quality or quantity of food, by 
defective nutrition, by loss of blood, by too severe or 
too long continued mental occupation, or by chronic 
diseases. 

The decrease in the number of the red corpuscles 
in the blood lessens the power of this fluid to carry 
oxygen, and accompanied, as this disease very often 
is, by a diminution of the albumen of the blood, in- 
terferes with the transformations which are necessary 
to the conservation of the human economy. The de- 
velopment of tissue is diminished, the animal heat 
decreased, and the energy of both nervous and mus- 
cular systems lessened. 

c. Chlorosis (green sicKness). — Though it may be 
regarded as a peculiar form of anaemia, has a well- 
marked idiopathic character, in that it very often 
arises without appreciable cause. It has been re- 
garded by many as an affection of the nervous sys- 
tem, having its origin or seat in the sympathetic, but 
it is more probable that the nervous affection is an 
effect, not the cause ; that the nervous system is 
equally affected with the other organs of the body. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 69 

Observation proves that any thing tending to interfere 
with or disturb the nutritive function aids in develop- 
ing any tendency which may exist to chlorosis. If 
we add to the remedies usually and properly given, 
iron, bitter tonics, nourishing food, etc., etc., the aid 
which may be derived from horse-back riding, may 
we not hope to cure in a short time an affection 
which if left to run its course will inevitably produce 
profound and irremediable ravages in the system ? 

d. Cachexia. — Here seems a fit place to say a few 
words upon a subject to which a proper amount of 
attention appears not to have been directed, but 
which is quite important. 

However severely we may judge Galen, Borden, or 
the others who have multiplied beyond measure, and 
without reason, the varieties of cachexia, we cannot 
deny their existence or their influence, following, as 
they do, certain chronic maladies, which impress pro- 
found modifications upon the economy. 

It is unnecessary to examine in detail each form, 
but it will suffice to simply name the commoner ones, 
of whose existence there can be no doubt. They are 
the paludean, the syphilitic, the mercuric, and the 
scorbutic. In each of these, this exercise strikes at 
once at the one element common to all, that state or 
condition of languor or inertia of all the functions 
which is the chief characteristic of the disease — a con- 
dition which persists long after removal of the dis- 
ease which caused it. 



70 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

We are all aware of the great difficulty of removing 
this cachectic taint from the system when its origin 
has been miasmatic, as in fever and ague, for ex- 
ample. 

All is not done when the disease itself has been 
met and overcome ; the harder task of reanimating 
the disordered functions, especially the assimilative, 
yet remains, for without this the sufferer cannot re- 
gain his lost health and strength. 

This is one of the cases in which we truly believe 
that, by suitable equestrian exercise, we shall see con- 
valescence go on with a rapidity almost impossible 
without the aid of this powerful auxiliary. 

e. Lymphatism (scrofula). — Lymphatism is the neu- 
tral ground between the lymphatic temperament, 
which is proposed as a normal type of health, and its 
morbid perversion, which constitutes the scrofulous 
diathesis. Although we are ignorant of the real 
nature of this condition, we recognize as its charac- 
teristic features a slowness and incompleteness of the 
functions of innervation and hematose, and a want 
of contractile power in the muscular and other tis- 
sues, which impress upon strumous patients a distinct 
and unmistakable character. 

Although the relation between the lymphatic tem- 
perament, and the existence in persons of such tem- 
perament of strumous tendencies, is not yet fully 
understood, yet clinical experience teaches us that 
scrofulous affections once developed in lymphatic in- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 71 

dividuals not only run a more rapid course, but pre- 
sent symptoms of greater intensity, and are more 
rebellious to treatment than when they occur in peo- 
ple of other temperaments. 

Besides this hereditary disposition, scrofula may be 
induced (how we know not) by causes such as ex- 
cesses, privation, deficiency of fresh air, light, or 
exercise. 

From whatever cause it may have been produced, 
our reliance is in dietetic and hygienic measures, 
and the providing of plenty of fresh air, light, and 
exercise, and these can scarcely be acquired in a 
pleasanter or easier manner than by horse-back rid- 
ing. 

f. Rachitis. — Rachitis, a disease common to child- 
hood, is characterized by a tendency to a softening 
of the osseous or bony tissues, or rather to a non- 
deposition of the earthy constituents in the bone, and 
an alteration in the nutritive function. 

It is a disease that of itself does not kill, but is 
not on that account to be less feared. 

Deficiency of stature, deformity of the lower ex- 
tremities, curvature of the spine, a vicious conforma- 
tion of the chest, early loss of the teeth, and a prem- 
ature appearance of old age, which but too often 
affect the children of the wealthy, are its offspring. 

The pelvis in rachitic women is often deformed, so 
that a natural confinement, if not absolutely impos- 



72 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

sible, is but too often fatal to the child and danger- 
ous to the mother. 

In our struggle against the march of this disease, 
we employ every possible means to aid nutrition 
and assimilation. Diet, air, light, judicious and 
moderate exercise, are all necessary. 

" Horse-back riding," says Chassaigne, " claims 
this privilege with more than one reason ; we have 
already seen how it acts in the accomplishment of 
the phenomena of nutrition ; we have also seen with 
what activity the transformation of the products of 
digestion into the tissues of the body takes place 
under its influence ; we have seen how the mineral 
constituents of the food fix themselves in the bone 
when needed." 

But this is not the limit of its useful influence. It- 
stimulates the function of digestion, aids in a greater 
elaboration of its products, and requiring work from 
the muscles, develops them and necessitates their 
more solid attachment to the bones. The latter are 
also enlarged and strengthened, for as the muscles 
develop the prominences on the bones to which the 
muscles are attached are increased in size. 

The converse of this is also true, for when, in cer- 
tain diseases of childhood, the muscles are not used, 
the growth of the bones is often diminished, and 
sometimes even arrested. 

The tendency to a contraction of the chest is 
directly opposed by the fuller breathing which this 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 73 

exercise requires ; and where an inward curvature of 
the thigh bone is threatened, the tendency is les- 
sened by the action of the muscles in riding, and if 
the limb be not straightened, at least a certain resist- 
ance is opposed to the deviation. 

g. Syphilis. — It may at the first glance seem 
strange that a sufferer from this disease, possessing, 
as it does, a well-marked specific character, can be 
benefited by horse-back riding. Nothing is more 
true, however ; and since the question is both a deli- 
cate and serious one, we will give, as briefly and 
clearly as we can, our reasons. 

According to Fleury, that, " As in any ordinary 
poisoning, the physician seeks not only to administer 
an antidote, but to cast out of the body, by the 
evacuations, the greatest possible quantity of the 
noxious substance, so in syphilitic infection the aim 
of the physician should not be alone directed toward 
the virus situated in the infected blood, but he 
should also strive to expel the poison through the 
various eliminatories of the system." 

Every now and then cases are met with which, in 
consequence of constitutional idiosyncrasies or the 
late hour at which the treatment is begun, or some- 
times owing to its being badly directed, stubbornly 
resist all specific remedies. The disease persistently 
increases in severity, the symptoms multiply, and, 
above all, tend to become permanent, and, finally, a 



74 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

true cachexia is developed, whose termination is but 
too often the grave. 

Sometimes the venereal poison at the very outset 
produces a change in the blood, the proportion of the 
red globules being decreased while the water is in- 
creased. In a more advanced stage of the disease, the 
anaemia may be the result partly of the disease and 
partly of the prolonged action of the medicines em- 
ployed ; the functions of the skin may be seriously in- 
terfered with if the eruption be very severe ; the 
strength may be exhausted by profuse salivation, or 
insomnia may be produced by the violent nocturnal 
pains which sometimes accompany this disease. 

In all these conditions, the anaemia manifests itself 
by its characteristic symptoms, and it becomes abso- 
lutely necessary to aid the forces of the organism. 

There is sometimes a stage of this disease which 
varies greatly as to the time at which it appears, 
where the poison seems to exert almost all its power 
in the production of gummy tumors or a diffused 
sclerosis. These growths may invade any part or 
organ of the body, and, developing in the meshes of 
any tissue, may either, by mechanical pressure or 
by replacing the normal tissue, interfere with or en- 
tirely suppress the function of the part invaded. 

The danger to be feared from these growths is 
dependent in a great measure upon their situation, 
those affecting the viscera or nervous centres being 
much more grave than when developed elsewhere. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 75 

When the nervous mechanism is invaded, the ut- 
most attention and care is requisite on the part of the 
physician, since symptoms almost inappreciable are 
oftentimes the most precious indications to the ob- 
server. The progress of the disease may be so slow 
and insidious as to deceive the vigilance of the most 
careful physician. Very often the sufferer from this 
disease cannot account for the gradual loss of both 
mental and physical power and of weight. 

If these are accompanied by functional disorders, 
especially nervous ones, which may be slight and of 
short duration, the sufferer is led to believe that there 
exists no cause for uneasiness, when in fact they are 
potent indications of a most serious and grave con- 
dition. 

The physician is seldom called upon until the 
lesions are of a pronounced character. If by a fortu- 
nate chance, he is called upon in time, he may fore- 
see their possible development, and take effectual 
measures to prevent it. 

It is in the latter cases, when there yet remains in 
the organism some power of resistance, that horse- 
back riding, in addition to the proper specific reme- 
dies, will be of great service ; we do not presume to 
say in attacking the disease itself, but in placing the 
economy in such a condition that it can resist ulterior 
attacks, and the physiological may overcome the 
pathological state. 

h. Gout.— Gout is an anomaly of the organism 



76 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

under whose influence pathological conditions of the 
system of a determinate character are produced. 

Scudamore regards gout as the result of the dietetic 
habit of the individual, and says that: " Any con- 
dition or occupation which leads to inactivity and re- 
pletion, or in which one only takes passive exercise, 
leads to gout. " 

With us here, however, the question is not as to 
the nature and causes of the disease — since its symp- 
toms are characteristic, and but too well known— but 
how are we to prevent another attack ? 

The experience of every day confirms the truth 
of the statement that active exercise prevents gout. 
We know that laboring men rarely suffer from this 
disease unless there be in them an hereditary disposi- 
tion. 

The treatment of a gouty patient in the interval 
between the attacks, whether they be regular or 
irregular, must of course be chiefly dietetic ; the in- 
stances are not few where men of strong will, men 
masters of, not slaves to their appetites, having been 
warned by one attack, have thenceforward resolutely 
abstained from rich living and strong drink of all 
kinds, and have been rewarded for their self-denial 
and prudence, if not by complete immunity from all 
further assaults, at least by very few and feeble visi- 
tations ; on the other hand, there are many who, 
possessing a gouty tendency, know only too well, 
from personal experience, that a single debauch, or 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 77 

sometimes a single glass of wine, or the excessive 
indulgence in animal food may lay them prostrate in 
the grasp of their enemy. 

I am sure that total abstinence will well repay any 
young man who has any tendency to this disease, for 
any supposed privation. 

With the old, however, the case is different, and 
this is especially so when the health has been broken 
down by disease. They must be allowed daily a cer- 
tain quantity of their accustomed good cheer, or they 
become an easier prey to their enemy. Here we 
must venture as well as we can between the opposite 
dangers, between the Scylla of excess and the Cha- 
rybdis of abstinence and debility. 

The same is true in regard to exercise : the young 
and hearty can scarcely take too much ; the old and 
debilitated may, by once over-exerting himself, bring 
on an attack. 

"Although I can do little more than point out 
general principles for your guidance, I may remark, in 
reference to exercise, that it should never be violent, 
that it should be habitual, daily — not used by fits and 
starts, and interrupted by fits of indolence or inac- 
tion ; and that it should be active, muscular exercise, 
as distinguished from passive exercise or gestation. 
No mode of exercise is as good as walking, and with 
this may be agreeably and beneficially conjoined riding 
on horse-back. (Watson, " Practice of Physic/') 
Sydenham, in his "Tractatus de Podagr. et Hydrop. " 



78 HORSEBACK RIDING. 

(1683), says of exercise in this disease : " Exer- 
cise practised daily and long continued prevents 
this misfortune, by dissipating with the sweat the 
humor of the gout ; as to the exercise to be chosen, 
horse-back riding is preferable to all others, when 
the sufferer is not too aged, and has not the stone. 
And, indeed, I have long thought that were a man 
to discover a remedy as efficacious for gout and 
most chronic diseases as long-continued exercise on 
horse-back, and make a secret of it, he would gain 
great riches/ ' 

i. Diabetes. — Diabetes is a constitutional affection, 
characterized by the secretion of a large quantity of 
urine containing sugar ; urgent, constant thirst, diffi- 
cult to allay ; a voracious appetite, and a progressive 
loss of flesh. Though many theories have been ad- 
vanced as to its cause and nature, they only teach us 
that there exists some anomaly of organic metamor- 
phosis, due especially to a disturbance of the function 
of assimilation or innervation. The disease is to-day 
no longer beyond the resources of the healing art. 

When diabetes is the result of over-exertion of 
some function of the economy, especially if of the 
nervous system, and the glycosuria is in that unde- 
termined state which certainly is not health, and can 
scarcely be called disease, then exercise is impera- 
tively indicated. 

The following extracts from Chassaigne support 
the above view : " M. Bouchardat, in his magnificent 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 79 

studies on the* treatment of glycosuria, points out 
the beneficial results of horse-back riding, and had 
he but insisted more strongly upon the use of that 
remedy in the treatment of this disease, we would 
have had nothing to add to the patient researches 
of the learned professor/' 

Bouchardat, led to do this by the practice in use in 
the training of pugilists, in sending his patients to 
labor in the fields, or to undergo a course of training 
in the gymnasium, had in view principally the attain- 
ing of two results : 1st. The absorption of a greater 
quantity of oxygen ; 2d. The burning of a greater 
quantity of sugar. 

" Under the influence of more rapid movements, a 
greater quantity of air is introduced into the lungs, a 
greater quantity of oxygen employed, and a greater 
quantity of heat and force produced ; that heat and 
force necessitate a greater consumption of the alimen- 
tary materials, and that which undergoes easiest this 
change is sugar. It results, that being destroyed in 
greater proportion, it can no longer appear in the 
urine, and that we can thus by forced exercise utilize 
a greater quantity of the glycosuric aliments/ ' (Bou- 
chardat, " Du Diabete Sucre ou Glycosuria, son traite- 
ment hygienique," Paris, 1852.) 

Probably there is no form of exercise which fulfils 
more completely the indications so clearly formulated 
by Bouchardat than horse-back riding. Though not 
as severe, and the results less than those obtained 



So HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

from the same number of hours per -day spent in a 
gymnasium, the daily amount of exercise may be so 
proportioned that the effect shall be equal, and that, 
too, without causing so much fatigue. 

The oxidations of sugar-forming material, if less 
intense than in gymnasium training, are longer con- 
tinued, and keep pace with the formation of the 
sugar. It has the advantage of giving better air, and 
some degree of mental occupation. 

The pleasure to be derived from a ride on horse- 
back will often overcome the disposition to laziness 
and inaction which is very often a cause of injury to 
the sufferer from diabetes, while the knowledge that 
he had to undergo an hour's hard work would be 
very likely to keep him away from the gymnasium. 

j\ Obesity. — Obesity is either the result of an 
hereditary taint or of an acquired diathesis, and is 
due to a deficient oxidation or combustion of those 
substances which are transformed into fat in the 
organism. 

Alimentation, though it plays a great part in the 
production of this trouble, is not its only cause, since 
slowness of circulation, especially that in the capil- 
laries, produces this condition. With the develop- 
ment of this disposition, the chemical exchanges 
which should take place between the blood and the 
tissues are incomplete, the assimilative function is 
disturbed, the action of the nerves which preside over 
nutrition is altered, and the functions of the skin, 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 81 

upon the proper performance of which so much 
depends in this affection, are seriously impaired. 

In order to favor the oxidation, and thus remove 
from the system the materials which by successive 
changes are converted into fat, it is requisite that the 
rate both of the respiration and of the circulation be 
increased, that the function of innervation be regu- 
lated, that the absorption of easily assimilated sub- 
stances be favored, that certain secretions be increased 
in quantity, and that greater exchanges of material 
take place in the body. 

How can such indications be better fulfilled than 
by proper exercise, added to a mode of living based 
upon true hygienic principles ? 

We must not, however, confound obesity with a 
prejnge fatal. Young ladies whose embonpoint, in 
their opinion, is too marked, are dissatisfied with 
that abundance of tissue, and wrongly regarding lean- 
ness as beauty, strive by every means in their power 
to destroy their health in order that the proper degree 
of lathiness may be reached. 

When in a young girl this tendency to the de- 
velopment of an excessive amount of fat discloses 
itself, the proper remedy is horse-back exercise and 
moderation in diet. This is the true specific against 
excessive embonpoint — not acidulated drink or sub- 
stances which, destroying the health, remove not only 
the fat, but at the same time all pretensions even of 
beauty. 



82 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

""A woman maybe beautiful without embonpoint, 
but a really thin woman who, even at a distance, may 
serve as a subject upon whom the student may 
pursue his studies in osteology, cannot (even with the 
grossest flattery), be called beautiful/ ' (Bureaud.) 

k. Intermittent Fever. — Intermittent fever some- 
times disappears without treatment, but this is very 
rare, and is almost always the result of removal from 
the infected locality. Flight does not, however, 
always effect a cure, since a single attack may have 
produced so profound an impression upon the system, 
that if the sufferer be not subjected to appropriate 
and sufficiently long-continued treatment, he will, if 
the disease does not return per se, suffer for years 
afterw r ards from its effects. 

A number of experiments have established the 
fact that diaphoretics and violent muscular exercise, 
taken just before the chill, will retard it, and in some 
cases even cure the disease. (" Diet, des Sci. Med. 
—art. Diaph.") 

The English Hippocrates, Sydenham, regarded 
horse-back riding as a most useful remedy in obstruc- 
tions of the liver and spleen. 

Ramazzini tells of a young riding-master whom he 
cured completely of an obstruction of the spleen fol- 
lowing an acute attack of fever by making him, not- 
withstanding his debility and wretched appearance, 
return to his occupation. 

In the febrile condition of body following improp- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 83 

erly treated intermittent fever, there is no better ex- 
ercise than • horse-back riding, and we regard it as the 
only sure means of restoring to the organs their lost 
energy, of re-establishing the assimilative power, and 
increasing the rate of oxidation in the system, and 
consequently its temperature. 

From whatever point of view we consider the dis- 
ease we are now discussing, we are forced to conclude 
that a modification in the nature and course of the 
blood is the agent producing intermittent fever, and 
that congestion of and enlargement of the spleen are 
results of that modification. 

Diseases of the Nervous System. 

a. Hypochondriasis. — Hypochondriasis is a mental 
disorder characterized by an exaggerated egoism. 
There is frequently some functional disorder of the 
brain or other organs, very often disease of certain 
organs, especially those of nutrition — these derange- 
ments being primary or secondary to the mental dis- 
turbance. 

It happens sometimes that the physician, unable to 
discover the cause of the condition of his patient, or 
fearful of being duped, denies the existence of hypo- 
chondria as a disease. Here, however, a grave error 
is committed, since the disease not only exists, but 
with it is a faulty nutrition of the brain, producing a 
morbid sensitiveness as to the opinions and actions 



84 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

of others, and an over-activity of the powers of 
imagination and observation. 

As hysteria is almost peculiar to women, so Jiypo- 
chondriasis is confined almost exclusively to men. 

We are prone to confound the seat of disease and 
the cause ; the cause of hypochondria may be in 
the region which has given it its name, or it may be 
in any other part of the body ; the seat of the disease 
is always the brain. 

We know that epilepsy is sometimes caused by 
intestinal worms, and that its seat is a determined 
region of the cerebro-spinal axis. Is it not as great an 
error to confound the cause and seat of the disease in 
the one case as in the other ? 

Hypochondria is, then, a cerebral neurosis, deter- 
mined by an alteration in the tissue of the brain, 
and characterized by an excessive over-excitability 
of certain nervous elements. The mental disorders 
resulting from it are only reflex results of disturbances 
taking place in other parts of the body, and are 
usually objective ; though sometimes they are purely 
subjective, and are consequently entirely beyond 
recognition. 

The sick man alone, owing to his mental condition, 
is capable of recognizing and appreciating them ; and 
it is this morbidly sensitive acuteness which consti- 
tutes the disease. 

It must be understood, however, that a mental 
predisposition to this state is necessary in order to 






HORSE-BACK, RIDING. 85 

cause or develop this hypochondriacal condition, and 
that it is only after long solicitation that the faculties 
involved can be made to perform their functions in 
the irregular way which characterizes the disease. 
It is to this that the greater proportion of hypochon- 
driacs in cities than in the country is due. In cities 
the impressions made upon the mind in a given time 
are much more numerous than in the country ; the 
struggle for place, and even for existence, much 
fiercer. 

In the city very often the excessive mental labor 
seriously impairs the bodily health ; in the country 
the quiet daily routine is rarely departed from. 

There is scarcely a physician in our large cities 
who has not had sufferers of a nervous temperament 
and an impressionable and irresolute character come 
to him seeking relief from this malady. Anxious 
beyond measure, melancholy in the extreme, per- 
petually uneasy about their health, they everywhere 
seek new remedies, and alas ! but only making the 
fortune of some quack. They describe with the most 
scrupulous exactness a host of diseases from which 
they believe themselves to suffer. 

To whoever will listen they will give the most 
minute details of their existence ; each day they dis- 
cover some new state or phenomena of their disease. 
Their minds continually dwelling upon the thought 
that a sudden and perhaps a very near death may 
come at any moment, they go to the physician and 



S6 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

beg him to employ any means to save them ; invari- 
ably believing that he does not do for them all that 
he can, or that may possibly be done, they finally be- 
come imbued with the idea that their malady is in- 
curable. Finally, they endeavor, by the perusal of 
medical works, to determine for themselves the 
nature of their ailments ; not understanding what 
they read, or interpreting it badly, they finally reach 
the conclusion that their body is a sort of a patho- 
logical museum. Indeed, they believe that they have 
not one but ten diseases, and sometimes more. 

Some forms of hypochondria, where at the same 
time there co-exist disorders of the organic life, and 
mental disorders which border on aberration, are, we 
well know, very rebellious to treatment. 

Here it is of the utmost importance that the suf- 
ferer be led to forget in some pursuit of pleasure his 
trouble, to restore the muscular strength and to aid 
the digestive powers. Can we not do these far better 
by exercise on horse-back than by drugs ? 

When not contra-indicated by disease of the uri- 
nary organs, horse-back riding is the remedy for this 
form of hypochondria. It shows to the patient his 
strength ; it does not remind him several times a day, 
as ordinary medicines would, that he is a sufferer, but, 
on the contrary, makes him forget, while on horse- 
back at least, his sufferings. 

Besides, it exerts a very beneficial influence upon 
the digestive apparatus, and thus overcomes the dys- 



HORSEBACK RIDING. 87 

pepsia, whether this manifests itself chiefly by a ten- 
dency to flatulence, or dependent upon catarrh of the 
intestines, which is so often an accompaniment of this 
disease. 

In using this treatment, we would advise that an 
easy-gaited animal be chosen ; that early morning be 
the time selected ; that the pace be a gentle gallop or 
canter, and that the exercise be not so prolonged as 
to induce fatigue. But advising to-day horse-back 
riding as a cure for hypochondria is only repeating 
the recommendation of Sydenham, made nearly a 
century ago. He relates a case of a young priest, 
who, suffering greatly from this trouble, was com- 
pletely cured by this form of exercise alone. 

b. Muscular Debility. — Before studying the effect 
of exercise upon the muscular system, a few words as 
to the functions performed by muscular tissues are 
necessary. Within all muscular tissue, more espe- 
cially if they are exercised, active combustion takes 
place, the heat evolved producing one of two 
effects : 1st. If utilized immediately, it is converted 
into motion ; it may be used to aid in the meta- 
morphosis by which portions of the body are re- 
newed or destroyed, or to increase the organic ex- 
changes. 

Muscular debility is generally the result of de- 
rangement of the organic functions, and, finally, acting 
reciprocally, seriously affects nutrition. Horse-back 
riding cannot here fail to render signal service, since 



88 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

it aids digestion, and at the same time furnishes 
exercise for 'the muscles. 

Muscular paralysis may be due to two causes : 1st. 
To a faulty innervation, and, 2d. To defective 
nutrition, which may render the muscles incapable 
of responding to the stimulus of the motor nerves. 

Friedberg, in a paper upon muscular paralysis, 
states that, " When, as far as can be discovered, ner- 
vous conductibility, power of will, and state of the 
nervous centre are normal, paralysis may occur, and 
that it is due to a defective nutrition.' ' 

Muscular atrophy is dependent upon lesions of the 
cerebro-spinal axis of the sympathetic system, or 
upon alteration of the nutritive power especially 
localized in the muscles affected. 

In the last forms of the two diseases above men- 
tioned, in hemiplegia or paraplegia, where paralysis 
is not complete, or where the power of moving has 
in part been regained, in paralysis following hysteria, 
and in localized forms of this affection, it is evident 
that horse-back riding must be of great service. 

It quickens the circulation, excites the nerves, and 
as the movements required are generally those ex- 
ecuted by many muscles working together, the dis- 
abled part is solicited if not forced to become active. 

c. Hysteria. — An affection characterized by ner- 
vous derangement, producing spasmodic contraction 
of the muscles, especially those of the throat, dysp- 
noea, palpitation of the heart, a sensation as if a ball 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 89 

were ascending from the stomach to the throat, a 
dry convulsive cough, a disturbance of the digestive 
organs, and often a strange perversion of the appetite. 

The patient is sometimes sad, sometimes irascible, 
and generally suffers from neuralgia. 

The hysteric attack is but the manifestation of, not 
the disease itself. 

1 The most admissible theory of hysteria is the one 
which gives as the basis of the disease a trouble of 
nutrition of the nervous system in its totality, as in 
the central apparatus as in the peripheral. (Nie- 
meyer.) 

This disease is confined almost exclusively to 
women, and, according to the researches of Briquet, 
one half of them suffer from it. 

Jaccoud gives as the reason why it affects women 
alone, " that it is a disease of the moral and physical 
nature, and is caused by the influence which the 
affections or passions, more intense and less restrained 
than in man, are allowed to exert upon the reason- 
ing faculties ; and also that the nervous organization 
of woman is such that a predisposition to this trouble 
is created/ ' 

More influenced than man by all impressions 
affecting herself, woman is less apt to control them ; 
she is powerless to prevent the automatic and invol- 
untary reactions which excitements produce upon her ; 
and often tired of the struggle, even before she has 
attempted it, she allows both will and reason to be 



90 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

subdued by sensible and psychical impressions, of 
which these two faculties alone should be the sover- 
eign regulators. 

It is now a recognized fact that the agent of the 
materia medica proper seldom, if ever, does more than 
palliate this trouble, and that the proper treatment 
consists in appropriate regimen, suitable mental oc- 
cupation and exercise. 

In man there often exists an analogous state, 
indicated by melancholy, fear, palpitation of the 
heart, ringing in the ears, headache and disordered 
digestion. 

With these states we may group certain disorders, 
having their seat in the reproductive organs, such as 
nymphomania, onanism, impotency, and sterility — all 
caused by the same moral and mental conditions and 
yielding to the same treatment. 

d. Chorea (St. Vitus' dance). — A disease charac- 
terized by irregular, tremulous, and often ludicrous 
movements of certain portions of the body, usually 
of the head and face, the movements being to a slight 
extent under the control of the will. 

After the disorder has persisted for a time, the 
brain seems to become involved, and impairment of 
the memory and irritability of temper result ; the 
digestive organs become involved also ; sleeplessness 
follows, and finally the general health suffers. 

It is a disease of childhood and puberty, rarely oc- 
curring before the age of six, most frequently between 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 91 

six and seventeen, and but seldom at a more ad- 
vanced period. It is very probable that any influence 
capable of producing a strong and sudden shock to 
the nervous system may become an exciting cause of 
chorea ; thus fright is one of its commonest causes. 
Irregular dentition, strong mental emotion, blows or 
falls, the irritation of intestinal worms, etc., etc., all 
may induce an attack. 

A delicate constitution is a strong predisposing 
cause. 

In studying the effect of horse-back riding upon 
anaemia and chlorosis, we saw how the digestive or- 
gans were aided, the circulation quickened, the ner- 
vous system strengthened, and the general tone of the 
body improved. 

In chorea, the co-ordination of muscular power 
which horse-back exercise requires, together with the 
moral influence exerted by it upon the sufferer, are 
added to the beneficent effects before mentioned, 
and cannot but be of great benefit. We now speak, 
of course, of the disease in its beginning, when there 
exists still a certain amount of control over the move- 
ments of the body. Later on, the violence and 
irregular nature of the muscular contractions may be 
almost a bar to sitting on horse-back, yet here even 
much may be done. 



92 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 



Diseases of the Organs of Respiration. 

a. Phthisis. — Accidental or hereditary causes may 
or may not develop the tuberculous diathesis ; when 
developed, it may be grave or slight, curable or incur- 
able. At least such is the only deduction that can 
be drawn from the contradictory facts daily recorded 
by chemical observers of the unexpected develop- 
ment or absence of the rapid growth of or unlooked- 
for recovery from that disease. From a diagnostic 
point of view, nothing gives us a better account of 
the differences of which tuberculous modifications are 
susceptible than the more or less intense and persist- 
ent effect experienced by the nutritive functions. 

We may go further and state that the alterations 
in the digestive and assimilative functions is the 
proper characteristic of the morbid modifications of 
the organism, upon which the development of tubercle 
depends. 

This is not a new theory, for, long before our time, 
physicians and physiologists had recognized the fact 
that any agent which tended to diminish the physical 
energies of the system might give rise to tubercle ; 
but it is only to-day that these views have received a 
scientific demonstration. 

A few years since, Royer-Collarc called the atten- 
tion of the physicians to an art which had been sadly 
neglected, and, according to his statements, one from 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 93 

which excellent results could be obtained. To this 
he gave the name of Organoplastique-hygiene. 

It consists in so controlling the nutritive function, 
by means of suitably arranged alimentation and ex- 
ercise, as to correct a faulty or vicious organic con- 
dition, and thus replace a crumbling ruin by a sub- 
stantial edifice. 

As an example of the results procured by this sys- 
tem, we may instance the training of horses for 
racing, or of men for the ring or rowing. While I 
cannot admit that hygiene possesses a generic power 
sufficient to change the constitution of a man, I still 
believe that it is capable of converting a diseased 
condition into a healthy one, and of effecting this in 
a person in whom disease has already manifested 
itself, provided, of course, that no important organ be 
too deeply involved. The indications for treatment 
in this state or tendency are plain : to introduce into 
the body materials from which fibrine to make the 
tissues and blood discs to carry oxygen can be 
readily made. In order to do this, two conditions 
must be fulfilled : 1st. To select food suitable in 
quality and properly prepared, and, 2d. To cause the 
organs whose duty it is to elaborate and assimilate 
the ingesta to perform their functions in a more per- 
fect manner than they are doing under the influence 
of the morbid condition. 

Physical exercise, without doubt, is one of the best 
means of intensifying the organic acts. Under the 



94 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

influence of exercise, proportioned, both as regards 
severity and duration, to the strength and condition 
of the individual, the circulation is increased in force 
and frequency, the amount of effete material voided 
by the skin increased, the secretion of mucous mem- 
branes lessened, and the digestive and assimilative 
powers improved. One of the most efficacious means, 
then, that can be employed by the physician, in cor- 
recting vicious tendencies in an organ or rebuilding 
a shattered frame, is a properly arranged system of 
diet and exercise ; these two means are the foundation 
upon which has been built up the science to which 
Royer-Collard has given the name of Organoplas- 
tique. We regard these means all the more favorably 
since they not only work directly, but by causing a 
portion of the psychical force which would otherwise 
be expended in destroying the body, to be used in 
opposing the disease, thus reducing the nervous ex- 
citability, which is in certain cases the worst form 
with which the physician has to deal. 

Among the remedies that have been regarded by 
both ancients and moderns as of especial benefit in 
phthisis, exercise on horse-back stands in the first 
rank. 

Sydenham considered it the specific in such cases, 
and probably the best way to show with what favor 
he regarded horse-back riding is to quote his state- 
ment : 

11 Some relatives of mine," says he, " who have 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 95 

been attacked with that malady have been cured by 
continuing for a long time that exercise upon my 
advice. I certainly know that any other remedy, 
however precious it might be, and any other method 
would have been perfectly useless to them. It is not 
only in slight cases of consumption, accompanied 
with frequent coughing and loss of flesh, that horse 
exercise has proved useful, but also in confirmed con- 
sumptions, accompanied by night sweats, and even 
by that fatal diarrhoea which ordinarily is a sign of 
the last stage of the disease, and the harbinger of 
death." (" Dissert. Epis. de Passione Hist., p. 476.") 

b. Bronchitis. — Beau divides all cases of bronchitis 
into two classes : 1st. That form in which subcrepitant 
rales are heard — there is more or less fever, and sel- 
dom severe dyspnoea ; whether the attacks be acute or 
chronic, they are not repeated, and complete recovery 
or death is the sequel. 2d. Where the rales are mu- 
cous, fever is generally absent, the dyspnoea may be 
very severe, and tuberculosis, as a complication, very 
seldom exists. Loud rales may often be heard in the 
trachea. It is seldom that it proves mortal. 

Horse-back riding, by increasing the amount of air 
respired, and by the jarring motion communicated to 
the respiratory organs, aids in the expulsion of the 
mucus which obstructs the air tubes, and renders it 
possible for air to reach the pulmonary vesicles. 

c. Asthma. — There are two theories as to the 
cause of this trouble : 1st. That it is due to bronchial 



96 IIORSE-BACK RIDING. 

secretion. This view is the older one — the one advo- 
cated by Galen and Celsius ; the other, that it is 
caused by bronchial spasm, is the theory of Van 
Helmont and Willis. With Beau, I believe that 
nervous asthma is only an intermittent bronchial 
catarrh, and that the dyspnoea, the feature of this 
disease, is caused by the resistance which the mucus, 
in the small bronchial tubes, offers to .the passage of 
air. It varies in intensity with the degree in which 
the bronchi are obstructed. 

Sonorous and sibilant rales are produced by the air 
passing through these parts of the bronchial tubes, 
which have a smaller calibre, on account of the 
mucous deposit. They are louder and more numer- 
ous during expiration, as then we have not only the 
obstruction in the air tubes, but a diminution in the 
size of the tubes themselves, due to the contraction of 
the lung. Sometimes the obstruction is complete, 
and then, no air passing, there is absence of all sound 
in that portion of the lung — this is known as absence 
of vesicular murmur. Rales and absence of vesicular 
murmur may alternate with each other, since cough- 
ing may render a complete obstruction incomplete, 
or vice versa. Air is sometimes entrapped between 
the terminal extremity of the bronchi and the mucous 
obstruction. 

The movement of expiration or of coughing tends 
to compress it, but this tendency is resisted by its 
elasticity, and the air cells are dilated, constituting 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 97 

emphysema. The physical signs of this condition 
are increased size of chest, a prominence of the 
tissue between the ribs, and an increase in the in- 
tensity of the respiratory sounds. This lesion bears 
the same relation to asthma that dilatation of the left 
ventricle does to insufficiency of the aortic orifice 
or of the stomach in cancer of the pylorus. 

We have seen that horse-back riding modifies the 
functions of the organic life, as well as those of the 
life of relation — just the ones that are affected in 
asthma. By horse-back riding the cutaneous circu- 
lation is intensified, excretion by means of the skin 
increased, and, owing to the increase in the amount 
of blood in the skin, the general circulation is modi- 
fied, and therefore nutrition and muscular contrac- 
tility ; the lymphatic circulation is quickened, and 
thus in pathological cases serious infiltrations are 
sometimes removed. 

Organs of Digestion. 

a. Dyspepsia — Gastralgia — Pyrosis. — Many writers 
regard -the functional troubles of the digestive organs 
only as symptoms of some acute or chronic disease, 
and not as distinct neurosis, no matter what relation 
the nervous system may have to the disorder. 

These writers would scarcely assign a place to those 
alterations of sensibility and contractility of the 
stomach and intestines which are known as gastro- 
enteralgia. 



98 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

Chomel, and with him a large school, regard pain, 
and with good reason, as only of secondary impor- 
tance in alterations of the digestive functions. 

" There is," says Beau, " dyspepsia whenever there 
is trouble, weakness, or absence of the digestive act, 
whatever be its symptoms, and whatever be its 
causes." He also regards any diminution, absence, 
or alteration of the absorbable alimentary products as 
a dyspeptic affection. 

We say, then, that there is dyspepsia when the gas- 
tric juice is abnormal, either as regards quantity, 
quality, or both ; when from any cause the move- 
ments of the stomach or intestines are lessened or 
entirely wanting, or when the actions of the nerves 
which control this act are altered — and then we have 
a true neurosis. 

It is seldom easy, it is more often impossible, to 
determine with precision the seat and cause of dys- 
pepsia. If we but think how complex are the phys- 
iological conditions upon which perfect digestion 
depends, how many and how varied are both the 
articles submitted to the action of the digestive work, 
and of the elaboration and transformations which 
they are to undergo, before they reach either the 
liver or lungs, we will no longer wonder why the 
point of departure from the proper w T ay escapes our 
notice. 

Though CI. Bernard's discoveries have greatly 
enlightened us, yet it is but too true that a dyspepsia 



HORSE-BA CK RIDING. 99 

regarded as having its origin in the stomach may de- 
pend upon functional lesions of the intestines, or of 
the spleno-hepatic apparatus. Clinical observation 
leads us to regard dyspepsia as essential, sympto- 
matic, or sympathetic — -the latter being the result of 
pathological reflex actions. 

According to Durand-Fardel, the symptoms of dys- 
pepsia are : a digestion always slow, painful, or diffi- 
cult, cardialgia, with increased sensibility to press- 
ure, a development of gas in the stomach or intes- 
tines, constipation and anorexia. These are the 
principal symptoms of dyspepsia, and their presence 
constitutes its chief characteristic. Though they 
may not present themselves as we have given them, 
yet they none the less constitute the most marked 
features of dyspepsia, and, predominating in most of 
the sufferers, they give place to other symptoms, 
which in their turn are masked or replaced by a 
third series. 

Dyspepsia, we must remember, is not alone a 
symptom of gastric disorder ; for on the one hand we 
have true neurosis, and on the other alterations in 
the blood, mingling their symptoms with the more 
local ones characteristic of the digestive disorder. 
To acknowledge that digestive disorders, be their 
cause what it may, produce perversion of the nutri- 
tive function, is to admit as a consequence defi- 
cient hematose, due to impoverished blood, loss of 
strength and of flesh, and the development of a 



ioo HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

cachectic state. Dyspepsia does not always manifest 
itself in the same way ; sometimes a severe pain over 
the region of the stomach, accompanied by or alter- 
nating with others of a like neuralgic character, to 
which the name gastralgia is given ; sometimes as a 
burning sensation in the stomach, pyrosis ; generally 
there is slowness and difficulty of digestion, a ten- 
dency to flatulence, nausea, and anorexia. These 
are but symptoms of a disordered innervation. 

There is a deficiency in both quantity and quality of 
the fluids secreted by the gastric mucous membrane, 
and the muscles not being sufficiently stimulated re- 
main inert. 

The first indication to be fulfilled is to restore the 
nervous power, or rather to recall the contractility 
of the muscular coat of the stomach. Horse-back 
riding acts strongly upon the digestive apparatus, both 
by the movements of the viscera which it occasions 
and the function it produces. It serves as a mechan- 
ical excitant to determine energetic contractions of 
the muscles of the stomach. From this exercise, the 
muscular coat gains strength ; digestion is easier ; 
absorption more complete ; nutrition more perfect, 
and the nerve regains its power and resumes its func- 
tions. Of course this applies especially to that form 
of dyspepsia where there is a languid state of the 
digestive functions, with muscular atony. 

It will not be nearly as efficacious in that form of 
dyspepsia where pain is the chief symptom — in true 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 101 

neuralgia of the stomach. Here its action will be far 
slower, though in the end a cure may follow. 

Antyllus had, it seems, a practical knowledge of 
the beneficial effects of riding when he said, '* Equi- 
tatio maxime stomachum firmat." 

b. Constipation. — Of all the symptoms of de- 
rangement of the digestive organs, the most trouble- 
some, and at the same time the most rebellious to 
treatment, is constipation. Probably the only remedy 
from which we can expect a radical cure is con- 
tinued daily exercise, either on foot or on horse-back, 
in the open air. 



102 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 



VI. 

HYGIENIC EFFECTS OF HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

In an authentic description of the life of Diane de Poitiers, one of 
the most remarkable of the royal favorites, we are told that the 
" extraordinary and almost fabulous duration of her beauty was in a 
great degree due to the precautions which she adopted." 

When she entered her fiftieth year, her charms were those of a 
woman of twenty-five. To account for a fact so extraordinary, her 
enemies invented a story to the effect that she dealt in the black art, 
and that she was indebted for her perennial beauty to potions com- 
pounded by unholy hands. 

But Diane's magic was one which any lady may practice without 
endangering her soul : the magic of amiability, regular habits, and, 
above all, vigorous exercise. 

" She suffered no cosmetic to approach her, denouncing every com- 
pound of the kind She arose every morning at six 

o'clock, plunged into a cold bath, and had no sooner left her cham- 
ber than she sprang into the saddle, and having galloped a league 
or two, returned to bed, where she remained until mid-day engaged 
in reading/ ' 

This system appears a singular one, but in her case undoubtedly 
proved most successful. 

" Six months before her death," says Brantome, " I saw her so 
handsome that no heart of adamant could have been insensible to 

her charms She had just been riding on horse-back, 

and kept her seat as dexterously and well as she had ever done in 
her youth." Brantome, Sketch of Diane de Poitiers. 

So far we have examined only the physiological 
and therapeutical effects of horse-back riding ; now 
we are to consider its hygienic uses — that is, we are to 
study it not as regards its power to cure or relieve 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 103 

already existing ailments, but as to its powers of pre- 
vention. 

While the value of medicine as an art has often 
been disputed, and the question raised whether, 
proper allowance being made for the good or evil, 
humanity would not fare just as well if left entirely 
to nature's resources, the usefulness of hygiene has 
never been questioned. Its rules and principles are 
based on experience, its sole aim is the preservation 
of health, its basis is admitted and its principles 
are respected. It is hygiene which teaches us how 
to live fully our life; for it has well been said that 
man does not die — he kills himself. 

A misanthrope, analyzing human life, finds it to be 
composed of three years of happiness, diluted with 
sixty or eighty of pain, trouble, and ennui. Yet in 
spite of the bitterness of the draught, how we dread 
that supreme moment when the cup is to be taken 
from our lips ! 

It is generally thought that in the early ages of the 
world, the earth, younger and more prolific in the 
principles of life, produced stronger men than those 
of the present day. Imagination, which delights in 
the wonderful, implicitly believes all that tradition 
hands down relating to the patriarchs of the Bible, 
whose lives extended through several centuries. Mod- 
ern science, after proving that the chronology of those 
remote ages was very different from ours, has rectified 
this mistake. 



104 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

Henser and other authors have proved that the 
year consisted of three months only, before the time 
of Abraham ; after this patriarch it was composed of 
eight months, and that it was not until after the time 
of Joseph, the minister of Pharaoh, that it had in- 
creased to twelve months. 

King David says, " The days of our years are three- 
score years and ten ; and if by reason of strength 
they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor 
and sorrow ; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. ' ' 
(Psalm xc, verse 10.) 

Modern statistics show that the average length of 
life for some centuries past is gradually increasing ; 
thus, for example, that the average life, which was 
24 years and 4 months in the seventeenth century, 
and which increased to 30 years and 8 months in the 
eighteenth century, is now 38 years and 9 months. 

In the seventeenth century, half the new-born gen- 
eration died before the age of 12 years, three fourths 
did not live to the age of 47, and four fifths died at 
the age of 55 years. In the eighteenth century, the 
increase is remarkable. At last in the nineteenth 
century, the half of the newly-born generation lived 
to the age of 38 years, a fourth part reached the age 
of 68 years, and a fifth extended beyond the age of 71 
years. The probable life from the time of birth has 
increased more than threefold since the seventeenth 
century. 

It has been the object of research from the remot- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 105 

est ages to decide the duration and natural limits of 
human life. Among modern theories, we have first 
that of Schubert, which has for its basis the revo- 
lution of the earth. He maintains that the human 
life ought to be 70^ years, because it should have 
as many days as the precession of the equinoxes 
(founded on a particular movement of the axis of the 
earth) includes years — that is to say, 25,920. 

Buffon, supported by a physiological idea, has estab- 
lished as a principle that the entire duration of life 
can be measured in some manner by that of the time 
of its growth. But this great naturalist missed an 
essential point in the solution of this problem : he 
did not know the precise sign which decides the time 
of growth. 

Flourens has found this sign in the reunion of the 
bones to their epiphysis. It is at the time when the 
bones are consolidated to their epiphysis that animals 
cease to grow. This reunion takes place generally in 
man at the age of 20 ; in the horse at 5 years ; in the 
lion at 4, and in the dog at 2 years. Now the horse 
lives to the age of 25 years, the lion to 20, and the 
dog to 10 and 12, which makes it nearly five times 
the length of the growth. Thus the life of man, 
regular and free from accidents, ought to last a cen- 
tury at least. 

Flourens, in extending thus the length of life, must 
be adopting an unusual classification of its different 
periods. According to him — and his doctrine is the 



IC6 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

result of long observation — the ages are divided into 
four series : First infancy, from birth to the age of 
io years ; second infancy, or adolescence, from 10 to 
20 years. First youth, from 20 to 30 years ; second 
youth, from 30 to 40. First manhood, from 40 to 55 
years ; second manhood, from 55 to 70. First old 
age, from 70 to 85 ; second old age, from 85 to 
death. 

Flourens prolongs the period of adolescence to 20 
years, because at that time the development of the 
bones is completed, and, as a natural consequence, 
the growth of the body in length. If he extends 
youth to 40 years, it is because at that age the body 
attains its final size, whatever it gains afterwards 
being only an accumulation of fat. Then if he pro- 
longs manhood to 70 years, it is because he perceives 
a work of invigoration, which renders every part of 
the body stronger and more complete — which work 
begins at 40 to 55 years, and continues nearly to the 
age of 70. 

Old age then commences. According to this 
author, its characteristic is the loss of strength in 
reserve ; there remains for the old man the active 
power only, that of the moment. 

Two celebrated physiologists, Haller and Hufeland, 
had already, prior to the researches of Flourens, 
opened a vast perspective to this desire for longevity, 
which is one of the weaknesses of mankind. Haller 
sought to estimate the natural length of human life, 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 1 07 

and, supporting his theory on historical evidence, he 
placed it between 90 and 100 years. 

Hufeland, more recently, following a different 
order of ideas, arrived at conclusions almost identical 
with those of Flourens. 

Leaving this digression, for which we ask pardon 
of the reader, let us briefly show the influence horse- 
back riding may have on the prolongation of our ex- 
istence. 

Whatever the average duration of life may be, the 
fact remains that most men die from disease ; few if 
any from old age. Now as then the statements, 
M Non accepimus brevem vitam sed facimus " (Seneca) 
and " Inaction weakens the body, exercise fortifies it ; 
the first brings on premature old age, the second 
prolongs adolescence/ ' are true. 

An examination of the physical structure of the 
body, its admirable mechanism, the flexibility of its 
articulations, and of the quickness and strength which 
exercise gives, leads us to conclude that it was not 
made for inaction. Frederick the Great's saying that 
" When I look closely at our physical structure, I am 
almost tempted to believe that nature intended us 
for postilions rather than for men of erudition/ ' may 
not be so very wrong after all. 

We trust, then, that we will no longer be accused 
of riding a hobby when we advocate with what 
strength we can the claims of an agent which at the 
very least exercises a conservative influence upon the 



108 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

organism, if it does not restore to a sickly one its 
normal vigor, and which must be therefore regarded 
as a hygienic remedy of the greatest importance. 

All good things, as we know, when abused may- 
become active agents of evil, and the best remedy 
when given at the wrong time, or without proper 
regard to the dose, age, temperament, or idiosyncrasy, 
may be the cause of grave trouble, and this is the 
case with horse-back riding. Wisely directed, it is 
an excellent means of cure ; wrongly employed or 
abused, it may prove a cause of disease. By abuse I 
do not mean only a too prolonged but too violent 
exercise, as when there is too great a disproportion 
between the action of the horse and the strength of 
the rider. 

Horse-back riding is injurious in all acute diseases, 
even where the weakness of some organs would seem 
to call for its strengthening influence. Want of 
strength in the rider, the effect of the agitation he 
must undergo, and the increased local irritation and 
general excitation that it would produce, all forbid 
its use. 

In the chronic phlegmasia so often occurring in the 
pulmonary system, it should be absolutely prohibited, 
as the already existing oppression would be increased 
by it, unless the sufferer be willing to walk his horse. 
In that case, since an opportunity of breathing fresh 
air without fatigue or excitement would be afforded, 
the result could be but beneficial. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 109 

Sometimes haemoptysis has been produced by rid- 
ing rapidly against a strong wind. There must have 
existed a morbid predisposition of the system. 

Many authors, as Ramazzini, Cabanis, Loude, etc., 
state that an excessive indulgence in horse-back 
exercise produces aneurism of the aorta, and it is gen- 
erally acknowledged that horse-back riding is a very 
frequent cause of hernia. The continued pressure 
upon the intestines made by the diaphragm and 
intestinal walls, draws back the parts which form the 
ring, and this continuous pulling will in time so far 
relax it as to render a hernia a very possible effect. 

Urethritis is said to have been caused by riding ; 
as it would be benign, rest for a short time would 
prove the remedy. 

Horse-back riding is of course contraindicated in 
diseases of the urinary organs and in sufferers from 
hemorrhoids. The results of inquiries lead me to 
conclude that hemorrhoids only are developed from 
horse-back riding in those who make this exercise a 
profession. 

If we examine carefully as to the health of those 
leading a sedentary life, we will find that a greater 
portion of the affections to which they are subject 
results generally from lack of proper exercise in youth, 
thus preventing complete physical development, both 
as regards the form of the body and the functions of 
its organs. The impoverishment of the blood may 
be so complete as to destroy life, or only partial, and 



no HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

thus entailing a long chain of diseases ; or the lack 
of exercise may be during adult life. In this case 
the inherent force or vitality of the individual may 
for a long time overcome all injurious influences, 
but sooner or later we see morbid phenomena show 
themselves, without being able to trace out their 
cause, or state the exact time at which they began. 

One of the natural results of exercise, and one 
whose influence is of not less importance than the 
physical improvement, is that the regular and per- 
sistent application of the will to the overcoming of 
the want of energy and bodily laziness gives the 
moral and mental control of the physical nature, and 
leads, therefore, to an increase of the force of will and 
action in general, to greater firmness of character and 
strength to bear the adversities of life, and develops a 
persevering power of resistance against that tendency 
to yield to disease which so often in chronic cases is 
a worse enemy than the disease itself. 

Exercise maintains not alone the bodily health, but 
also strengthens and invigorates the mind. ''All the 
forces of the soul are increased and revivified by ex- 
ercise/ ' says Galen, and " native heat is maintained 
within the limits of health by moderate exercise of 
the body and mind." 

In every situation of life, in health or disease, the 
physical is always more or less influenced by the 
mental condition, and vice versa. Who has not en- 
joyed that feeling of thorough well-being on occa- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. Ill 

sions of great joy ? Who is it whose digestion is not 
better when all his thoughts are pleasant and joyful ? 
And if I am asked why I select horse-back riding in 
preference to any other form of exercise, or why it 
influences the mental and moral nature to a greater 
extent than any other, I answer readily because it 
pleases more. Man (and I include here the best half of 
mankind) grows all the fonder of horse-back riding 
from practice ; he is happy while riding, for there is 
neither room nor time for sad thoughts. For the 
majority of women it is more than a mere pleasure- 
party ; it is an occasion for a special toilet which is 
becoming to almost all. 



Origin and Progress of Horse-Races. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 115 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF HORSE-RACES. 

The Curetes, or Dactyli, the five brothers to whom 
Rhea had intrusted the education of Jupiter, having 
completed their allotted task, departed from Mt. Ida, 
and went to Elis. 

" One day, the eldest brother, Hercules, in order 
to relieve the tedium of their new condition, proposed 
that they should run a race, and offered as a prize to 
the successful contestant a crown of olive/' (Me- 
moires de l'Abbe Gedoyn.) 

According to the legend this sportive contest was 
the origin of those games which in succeeding ages 
gained such celebrity, and for which the Greeks, 
especially, ever manifested the most enthusiastic 
fondness. 

Undoubtedly the first races were simply foot- 
races. The horse roamed his native wilds a magnifi- 
cent but savage creature, for the art of training his 
fierceness and rendering him subservient to the use 
of mankind had not yet been discovered. Neces- 
sity, the mother of invention, was still to make 
known to the people of those early times the advan- 



n6 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

tages of domesticating an animal so absolutely essen- 
tial to our modern civilization. 

Each father of a family lived on the spot where he 
was born, occupying himself solely in cultivating his 
ancestral heritage ; the earth was tilled by the aid of 
" the patient ox/' and the ass was the sole beast of 
burden employed ; for, capable of enduring the 
greatest hardships and requiring but the scantiest 
fare, this animal, despicable in our eyes, was then 
held in high esteem. No one, whatever his condi- 
tion, whether chieftain or servitor, ever dreamed of 
wishing for a better or more honorable animal for 
riding. Luxury and refinement had not then created 
in man an infinitude of imaginary desires ; natural 
wants were the only ones he troubled himself to 
satisfy. 

This condition of primitive simplicity, however, 
was destined to form no exception to the inexorable 
law of change stamped on all human affairs ; an 
alteration in manners soon took place, and different 
manners introduced different usages. 

Fifty years after the deluge of Deucalion, which 
in the time of Moses inundated Greece, Clymenus, one 
of the descendants of the Idean Hercules, emigrated 
from Crete into Elis, reigned there, and celebrated 
games at Olympia. Then Endymion, son of -££th- 
lius, drove Clymenus from Elis, and usurped the 
throne ; but wearying speedily of power so easily 
gained, he offered the kingdom to his own children, 






HORSE B A CK RIDING. 1 1 7 

as a prize in similar exercises. These races, like the 
earliest, were both foot-races. It was not until some 
time after this, that Bellerophon, the young hero, 
impregnable in courage and virtue, appeared in 
Greece, discovered the art of taming the steed after- 
wards famous in legend and story under the name of 
Pegasus, and employed it in his triumphant combat 
with the Chimaera. 

Now, as Bellerophon, son of Glaucus and grandson 
of Sisyphus, was the sixth in direct descent from 
Deucalion, and lived during the time that Ehud 
judged Israel, we must infer that the equestrian art 
began to be practised in Greece about 2650 A.M., 
thirteen or fourteen centuries before the Christian 
era. In Egypt, on the contrary, the horse had long 
been a domestic animal. Pharaoh, who, while pur- 
suing the Israelites, was engulfed in the Red Sea, 
had with him, according to the Sacred Word, besides 
" horsemen, six hundred chosen chariots, and all the 
chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of 
them. ,, The Israelites, therefore, could not have 
been ignorant of the uses of the horse, although they 
themselves probably employed it only to a limited 
extent. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor 
his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, 
nor his ass," says Moses in the Decalogue ; he does 
not mention the horse, for the simple reason, un- 
doubtedly, that it was not yet in common use. In 



Ii8 HORSE- BACK RIDING. 

the first chapter of the Book of Job, we read also 
that this faithful servant of God was the owner of 
" seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five 
hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses ;" 
but hearing nothing of horses, we infer accordingly 
that throughout the East they were employed very 
little, if at all. But to return to Bellerophon. His 
encounter with the Chimsera took place in Lycia, 
whither he had been sent by Prcetus, with the design 
of causing his death ; and the fame of his adventures 
being quickly diffused in all the adjacent regions, im- 
mediately there sprang up among the princes and 
heroes of Greece an eager rivalry in regard to horses, 
each endeavoring to become the possessor and raiser 
of as large a number as possible. Many a city grew 
into w r ealth and renown through this new object of 
interest, but from their manifest superiority, the 
breeding horses of Epirus, Argos, and Mycenae soon 
bore away the palm from all competitors. The 
Thessalians, a tribe settled both in Greece and Mace- 
donia, acquired at this period an enviable reputation 
as equestrians ; mounted on perfectly tamed steeds, 
they fearlessly encountered wild bulls, from which 
circumstance they derived their name of Centaurs. 

The Lapithae, another people of Thessaly, ex- 
celled not only in manufacture of beautiful saddles 
and every variety of caparison, but in the more diffi- 
cult art of training and managing horses. 

Thirty years after Endymion, Pelops celebrated 



HORSE-BA CK RIDING. 1 1 9 

games at Olympus, in honor of Jupiter, with more 
pomp and splendor, according to Pausanias, than any 
of his predecessors. This prince had just gained a 
signal triumph over CEnomaus in that renowned 
chariot race in which the reward of victory was no 
more insignificant prize than the sovereignty of Pisa 
and the hand of Hippodamia, the most beautiful 
princess of the age ; we can readily believe, there- 
fore, that horse and chariot as well as foot races were 
a prominent feature in the games of Pelops. Still, 
until a period long subsequent to this, horses were a 
rare and valuable possession, a fact which explains 
the fables so numerous in the ancient mythologies. 
Poets wove into song and story how " the father of 
gods and king of men," having spirited away the 
beauteous Ganymede, gave to Zeus, the father of the 
youthful cupbearer, in order to console him for the 
loss of his son, horses of marvellous qualities ; how 
Neptune sent as a gift to Copreus, King of Haliar- 
tus, in Boeotia, the famous charger Areion, endowed 
with a human voice and the gift of prophecy ; how, 
at the marriage of the heaven-born Thetis with 
Peleus, child of earth, the gods who had honored 
the nuptials with their presence, wishing to testify 
their liberality and good-will, Neptune gave as his 
contribution to the marriage portion two magnificent 
horses ; and how, at the games of Patroclus, Mene- 
laus jharnessed his horse, Podarge, with Agamem- 
non's mare, the superb ^Ethea, which derived her 



120 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

origin from the divine steeds, presented to Zeus by 
Jupiter himself. 

Such legends are incontrovertible evidence that in 
those days a fine horse was something extraordinary 
and of almost priceless value. 

Chariots were introduced into Greece at nearly the 
same epoch as horses. Cicero, with due respect for 
immortal powers, attributes their invention to Mi- 
nerva, ^Eschylus to Prometheus, Theon, the scholi- 
ast of Aratus, to a certain Trochilus ; but common 
opinion, which Virgil follows, assigns the honor to 
Eruthonius. After Pelops, Amythaon, son of Cre- 
theus, and cousin-german of Endymion, again af- 
forded to the Greeks the pleasing and ever-welcome 
spectacle of Olympic games. After him, Pelias and 
Meleus celebrated them at their joint expense; then 
Augeas, and finally Hercules, son of Amphitryon, 
when he had completed the conquest of Elis. We 
cannot doubt that at all these celebrations, horse and 
chariot races bore a prominent part, especially at the 
last, where we are told that Janus, the Arcadian, 
gained the prize for horse-racing, and Iolaus, the 
voluntary companion of the labors of Hercules, car- 
ried off the chariot prize, ard was crowned by the 
hand of Hercules himself, whose mares he had bor- 
rowed for the occasion. 

According to Pausanias, it was a convenient 
fashion of those days to borrow horses that had ac- 
quired a reputation for extraordinary swiftness. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 121 

After the time of Pelops, who was contemporary with 
Bellerophon, it became customary for each king to 
celebrate his accession with games ; and horse and 
chariot races never failed to form part of the spectacle. 

Fifty years prior to the siege of Troy, Nestor had 
disputed the prize in a chariot race with the son 
of Actor, and about fifty years still earlier, at the 
obsequies of Azan, son of Areas, Etolus, giving 
free rein to his flying horses, had overthrown Apis, 
who died from the effects of the injuries thus re- 
ceived. It is evident, therefore, that races of various 
kinds formed part of the funeral ceremonies from the 
very earliest period of their introduction ; for Etolus 
was contemporary with Bellerophon, from whose 
epoch dates the use of horses among the Greeks. 

Four hundred years after the conquest of Troy, 
according to Father Peton, and twenty-three years 
after the founding of Rome, Iphitus, a descendant of 
Oxylus, on the authority of the Delphic Oracle, re- 
established the Olympic games. It was then, indeed, 
that these games first assumed fixed forms and were 
regulated by judicious laws, and that their celebra- 
tion having become exactly periodical, the Greeks 
began to compute time by Olympiads. 

But after such a long discontinuance, says Pausa- 
nias, the different exercises which had formerly been 
practised sank into almost entire oblivion, and it 
was only gradually that each was recalled to memory 
and restored to its place on the list of national games. 



122 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

Foot-racing, the most ancient and natural of sports, 
was first re-established ; but soon boxing, the pen- 
tathlon, the cestus, the poncratium, and particularly 
horse and chariot races had again resumed their 
former prestige. 

There were three principal classes of horse-races, 
the first two differing chiefly in the kind of animal 
employed — one being run w r ith saddle horses, the 
other with colts. The first ode of Pindar sings the 
praises of Hiero, King of Syracuse, who was victor 
in a contest of saddle horses ; and in the 128th 
Olympiad, when the second form of racing was insti- 
tuted or re-established, Hepolemus of Lycia carried 
off the prize. A third kind, called the calpe, con- 
sisted in running with two mares. The contestant 
mounted one and led the other by the bridle, and 
just before reaching the end of the course, leaped to 
the ground, and finished the race by leading both 
animals to the goal. These three modes of racing 
had many points of resemblance, however, as well as 
difference. They were all run without stirrups, the 
invention of which dates long after this period ; to 
all, children were admitted as contestants on the same 
conditions as men, and, finally, it was necessary in all 
for the riders, before finishing the course, to make the 
circuit of a goal, set up in a place so cramped and 
narrow that whoever, in any degree, lacked skill and 
address, ran great risk of falling from his horse and 
losing the victory. 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 123 

"I formerly believed/ ' says the Abbe Gidoyn, 
" that it was obligatory only in chariot races to pass 
round the goal ; but the following passage from 
Pausanias undeceived me : ' The mare of Phidolos of 
Corinth/ says he, 'well deserves that I should call 
attention to her merits. The Corinthians name her 
Aura. Her master having fallen at the very begin- 
ning of the race, not for an instant did she slacken 
her speed, but running on with the same care and 
judgment as if she still felt his guiding hand, she 
made the circuit of the goal, redoubled her efforts at 
the sound of the trumpet, and at last, conscious of 
having gained the victory and merited the reward, 
stopped in front of the judges' stand. Phidolos was 
proclaimed victor, and obtained from the Eleans the 
privilege of erecting a monument on which himself 
and his mare were represented/' From this passage 
we learn that towards the end of a race a flourish of 
trumpets animated the combatants to renewed efforts, 
and we must also conclude that the horse and chariot 
races were run in different inclosures. A horse would 
find no difficulty in turning where for a chariot to 
turn would be an utter impossibility ; consequently 
the same goal would not have answered for both. 
The Stadium, a space of about six hundred English 
feet, was the scene of the foot-races, the Hippo- 
drome of the horse-races ; and there was also a 
special place assigned to the contesting chariots. 
The Hippodrome must have been longer than the 



124 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

Stadium, for it would have been manifest injustice to 
subject men and horses to the same test, and, more- 
over, Pausanias positively asserts that the Hippo- 
drome was twice the length of the Stadium. 

But let us proceed to consider more in detail the 
subject of chariot races. 

The Greeks denoted a chariot by the word harma, 
which is almost the only expression employed by 
Pausanias. Hence we conclude that solely one spe- 
cies of chariot was used in these games, and that 
any difference consisted rather in the animals at- 
tached to the vehicles, and in the manner of attach- 
ing them, than in the vehicles themselves. 

The chariots of the Greeks were more or less orna- 
mented according to the rank and wealth of their 
owners. Homer relates that Diomedes appeared at 
the obsequies of Patroclus in a car resplendent with 
gold and metal ornaments. That of Menelaus was 
equally superb, and many others rivalled them in the 
magnificence of their decorations. If in this simple 
and primitive age, and in time of war, the Greeks 
already lavished such ornamentation on their chariots, 
what idea must we conceive of those sent to the 
Olympic games, the solemn and magnificent spec- 
tacles that every fifth year summoned all Greece to 
the sacred spot of their celebration, and at which 
kings and princes of world-wide fame, such as Hiero, 
Gelon, and Philip of Macedon contested the prize, 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 125 

either 111 person or by proxy, in the persons of their 
equerries. 

We can readily believe that on such occasions the 
creative genius and the love of beauty inherent in 
the Grecian mind would be displayed to the fullest 
extent, even in a matter apparently so unimportant 
as the decoration of a chariot. 

Diversity of ornament, nevertheless, does not 
necessarily imply any noticeable diversity of con- 
struction ; but great variety was gained, and games 
and contests were multiplied according as the cars 
were drawn by two horses or four, by young horses 
or those over five years of age, by colts or mules. A 
car to which two horses were yoked was termed in 
Latin biga, in Greek sunoria or sunoris, an expres- 
sion which Plato happily uses to signify the union 
subsisting between one soul and body. Racing be- 
tween chariots drawn by two horses of five years was 
made a prominent feature of the Olympic games in 
the 93d Olympiad. 

At the period of the Trojan war the Greeks fre- 
quently attached three horses to a chariot ; but this 
practice was never introduced into any of the naiional 
games. 

Four horses, however, were often yoked to a 
chariot, and were called tetJirippos, ietroris, and 
tetroria — in Latin, quadriga. 

This kind of race was the most honorable and 
beautiful of all, and was either instituted or renewed 



126 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

at no later period than the 25th Olympiad, remark- 
able for the victory of the Theban Pagondas. The 
Greeks never drove four horses in the modern 
fashion, two and two, but all abreast, The middle 
horses, called Jugales, were usually those esteemed 
the poorest; the best, styled funales or lorarii, were 
placed outside, and special care was taken that the 
horse on the left should be one thoroughly trained. 
To a certain extent, this horse directed the move- 
ments of the others, as it was necessary to turn to 
the left in making the circuit of the goal. 

Nestor, exhorting his son, Antilochus, to make 
every effort to obtain the prize offered by Achilles, 
addressed him thus : "Approach as near as possible 
to the goal ; to obtain this result, leaning forward on 
your chariot, gain the left of your rivals, and inciting 
the horse beyond your hand, give him loosened reins, 
while the horse under your hand will pass so close to 
the goal that it will seem as if the nave of your 
wheel grazed it in doubling." 

The place of meeting for both horses and cha- 
riots, which the Latins called carcercs, was an ex- 
tensive inclosure immediately in front of the race- 
course. 

The race-course had also its separate inclosure, de- 
noted in Greek by the word balbis or usplegx, in 
Latin by claiistrum or repagulum. Pausanias de- 
scribes the whole portion of ground allotted to the 
games, with all its different divisions, as follows ; 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 127 

" Beyond that part of the Stadium where the direct- 
ors of the games sit is the space assigned to the 
horse-racers ; in front of this is a large field, marked 
off in the shape of a ship's prow, and in such a man- 
ner that the back is turned towards the lists. At the 
spot where the field adjoins the Portico of the 
Agnaptus it gradually widens on both sides, and at 
the extremity of the beak, and raised to a great 
height, is a bronze dolphin, supported on a column 
of iron. 

"The field is more than 800 feet in circumference, 
and along its sides stalls have been built for the ac- 
commodation of horses and chariots, and these stalls 
are divided by lot among the combatants. In front 
of each row of stalls, from one extremity of the field 
to the other, extends a thick rope which serves as a 
barrier to keep the horses and chariots in their re- 
spective places until the proper moment. 

"Near the centre of the prow-like field stands an 
altar of unbaked brick, which before each Olympi- 
ad is carefully washed and whitened, and over it a 
bronze eagle stretches its widely-expanded wings. 

"By means of machinery this eagle is suddenly 
elevated and rendered visible to all the spectators, 
while at the same instant the dolphin at the end of 
the inclosure is lowered to the earth. 

"At this signal the ropes drop, and immediately the 
combatants advance from every side and meet around 
the dolphin. Here they are carefully paired and 



128 HORSE-BACK RIDING, 

matched, and now they ride into the lists, where 
the address of the charioteers and the swiftness of 
the horses decide the victory.' 5 

Such is the idea we gather of the Olympian ren- 
dezvous from the pages of Pausanias. He mentions 
only stalls or coach-houses for the horses and char- 
iots, but there is ground for believing that these 
structures were arched and consisted of more than 
one story, in order to furnish apartments for the use 
of the participants of the games. 

It is probable, too, that, occupying a site so fre- 
quented and celebrated, where the exhibition of any 
thing like extraordinary skill would confer corre- 
sponding honor upon the architect, they abounded in 
decoration and ornament. 

Still following the authority of Pausanias, we find 
that the race-course for chariots consisted of two 
divisions — the longer of the two being an artificial 
terrace, the other an elevation of moderate height ; 
but he furnishes no statistics concerning the length 
and breadth of the inclosure, though it could not 
have been less than several hundred feet. 

One author has been guilty of a fault common to 
historians, viz., that of thinking only of the times in 
which they write, and forgetting that the human in- 
stitutions they are describing are not perpetual, but 
as perishable as men themselves. M Debemur morti 
nos nostraque. M 

These games, therefore, consecrated by religion, 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 129 

and forming not the amusement but the delight and 
dominant passion, or, to speak more truly, the serious 
occupation of a whole nation, and that nation the most 
renowned and polished the world could then boast, 
have experienced the same unhappy fate as the people 
among whom they originated and perished with them. 

Thus, through the negligence of historians, whose 
duty it was to chronicle the institutions of their 
country, we have no adequate record of these spec- 
tacles, but are able to form only a confused idea of 
them, founded in many respects on pure conjecture. 
In regard to the goals, we are no more accurately in- 
formed. Pausanias makes a mere passing allusion to 
them in the following passage: "At one of these 
goals we see a statue of Hippodamia, holding a rib- 
bon in her hand, as if about to crown Pelops, already 
sure of victory ;" but these words, "one of the 
goals/' are sufficient to prove that there must have 
been several. Common-sense, ■ indeed, teaches us 
that at least three were necessary : one for horses, 
another for two-horse chariots, and a third for cars 
drawn by four horses. 

Now, imagine this multitude of horses and char- 
iots all assembled at the gathering-place, for the 
purpose of affording Greece a spectacle worthy of 
herself. The combatants are prepared, and the 
horses, only waiting the signal to fly at lightning 
speed into the lists, testify their ardor and impatience 
by the restlessness of their movements. We compre- 



130 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

hend very easily that contests like these could not 
fail to be exceedingly perilous. Sometimes a horse 
would stumble, and the light chariot receive a shock 
sufficient to shake the charioteer from his position, 
which was generally a standing one ; sometimes the 
four horses, impelled to their utmost speed, and be- 
coming excited beyond all control, would seize the 
bits between their teeth, and gallop madly over the 
course, dragging their luckless master helplessly 
along. " Fertur equis auriga neque audit curius 
habenas. M Again, an axletree would break, and the 
driver, falling to the ground, was fortunate indeed if 
he escaped being trampled beneath the hoofs of the 
flying coursers. Homer and the Greek tragedians 
furnish us many examples of such accidents. 

But even more perilous was the encounter of one 
chariot with another, in the endeavor to gain the 
slightest advantage ; for naturally each charioteer, 
regardless, in his excitement, of the probable conse- 
quences to himself, did all in his power to hinder or 
overturn his rival. 

The space, too, in which they contended was by 
no means very extensive ; and being compelled to 
follow almost the same path, in order to attain the 
goal, the highest degree of skill and dexterity could 
hardly suffice to prevent casualties of the most 
serious nature. As it was a point of honor to make 
the nearest possible approach to the goal, here was 
another source of danger ; and Nestor, in his counsel 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 131 

to his son, part of which we have already quoted, 
concludes his advice by bidding him beware of strik- 
ing the stone that served as a goal, lest he should 
wound his horses and shatter his chariot to frag- 
ments. 

As the peril increased towards the end of the 
course, it was then a loud flourish of trumpets was 
played, animating men and horses to renewed 
efforts. Dexterity, however, was more necessary 
than swiftness, for frequently the horses, being 
pushed beyond their strength, lost their wind and 
failed to double the goal. Hence the comparison 
which Cicero employs in the fourth book of his 
" Academical Questions,'" "I shall imitate the ex- 
ample of a wise charioteer, and spare my horses in 
order to be able to finish my course. " Callisthenes, 
in a fragment still extant, relates that Alexander in 
his early youth contested the prize in a chariot race 
at the Olympic games, and obtained the victory by 
his prudence and discretion. The majority of his 
rivals had passed him, but some, rendering their 
horses useless by injudicious haste, were unable to 
advance further ; while others, in their ardor and im- 
petuosity, came into collision and dashed their char- 
iots to pieces. A certain Nicolaus alone retained 
for a brief space the advantage he had gained ; but 
Alexander, foreseeing that, in his excessive eagerness, 
he would eventually meet the same fate as the others, 
did not allow himself to become disquieted ; and 



132 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

soon Nicolaus, rushing against the ruins of a chariot 
that obstructed the path, fell with his horses, and 
left Alexander sole competitor for the prize. 

He gained the goal, doubled it, finished the race, 
and presented himself as victor before one of the 
Hellanodices, who, as he placed the crown upon the 
youth's head, uttered these memorable words : " Be- 
lieve me, Alexander, just as you have won the vic- 
tory in this race, so you shall win many another one 
in war" — words which filled the breast of the young 
hero with noble joy, and perhaps first awakened in 
his soul the desire to embark in the grand enterprises 
that in all succeeding ages have astonished the uni- 
verse. 

It is manifest, then, that the goal was a place of 
extreme danger, where many an unhappy combatant 
met with misfortune and lost his hope of victory ; 
and equally manifest that, notwithstanding the dan- 
ger, it was necessary, in order to win the crown, to 
reach the goal first and double it successfully, prob- 
ably more than once ; indeed, in the opinion of 
several authors, the whole circuit of the Stadium was 
made twelve times in each race. 

And now the question arises, did the women who 
gained the prize in chariot races at Olympus com- 
pete in person or by proxy ? Pausanias informs 
us in one place that any woman detected in the 
act of viewing these games, or who should even have 
passed the Alpheus during the time of their celebra- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING, 133 

tion, would have been pitilessly hurled from the 
summit of Mt. Typens ; and, on the other hand, he 
mentions three women who had won renown through 
their success at chariot races, viz., Cynisca, daughter 
of Archidamus, King of Sparta, and sister of the 
great Agesilaus ; Euryleonis, another woman of 
Sparta, and the Macedonian, Bellistria. 

Again he asserts that Chamyne, the priestess of 
Ceres, and other virgins had their appointed places 
in the lists of Olympia, from which conflicting ac- 
counts we may infer that if women were forbidden by 
law to witness the exercises of the pancratium and 
pentathlon, on account of the indecency of these 
contests, there was certainly no cause to prevent 
them from being spectators or even participants in 
horse and chariot races, where all was noble — where 
there was nothing calculated to call the faintest blush 
to the cheek of modesty. 

It seems more than probable, however, that women 
did not enter the lists of Olympus in person, but 
merely sent thither their horses and chariots with a 
substitute. 

The manners and customs of Greece did not favor 
the presence of women in public, much less their be- 
coming a spectacle for the amusement of the popu- 
lace. It was not even necessary that men, in order to 
gain the victory, should drive their own chariots or 
ride their own horses over the race-course any more 
than at the present day. The horses won the crown 



134 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

of olives and their masters wore it. Philip of Mace- 
don was proclaimed victor at the Olympic game at 
the very time he was besieging Potidaea. Plutarch 
relates that this prince, favored of fortune, received 
on the same day three pieces of intelligence each 
more joyful than the last : first, that a son had been 
born to him ; secondly, that his general, Parmenio, 
had defeated the Ulyrians ; and, thirdly, that he had 
won a crown of olive at Olympus. 

And now it remains to say a word or two concern- 
ing this recompense, that, despite its apparent insig- 
nificance, was deemed a fitting reward for the most 
marvellous achievements in contests so perilous. 

And to begin with, we must admit that he who 
first said, " Opinion governs the world," spoke not 
without reason. Who could believe, were not the 
fact too well attested for doubt, that in the hope of 
being privileged to wear a wreath of olive leaves, a 
whole nation w r ould devote itself to the practice of 
exercises in the highest degree painful and hazard- 
ous ? But, on the other hand, the Greeks, by a wise 
policy, had attached such honor and distinction to 
the obtaining of this crown, that it is not surprising a 
people whose ruling passion was the love of glory 
believed they could not pay too dearly for this which 
of all honors was the most flattering. 

It is no exaggeration when Cicero declares in his 
Epistles fromTusculum, that, in the estimation of the 
Greeks, this olive crown was equal in value to a con- 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 13S 

sulship ; and in his oration from Floccus, that to gain 
the victory at Olympus conferred greater glory upon 
a Greek than the honor of a triumph upon a Roman. 

The successful contestant was proclaimed victor by 
a public herald and the sound of the trumpet. Not 
only was his own name mentioned, but that of his 
father, of the city that gave him birth, and some- 
times even of his tribe. He was crowned by the 
hand of one of the Hellanodices, and conducted in 
pomp to Prytaneus, where a public and sumptuous 
banquet awaited him. When he afterwards returned 
to the city, his fellow-citizens assembled in throngs 
to welcome him, and, persuaded that the glory with 
which he was crowned rendered their country illus- 
trious and reflected its splendor upon themselves, 
received him with acclamations and all the magnifi- 
cent accomplishments of a triumph. 

He never again needed to fear either poverty or 
humiliation ; his native state provided for his mainten- 
ance, and perpetuated his fame by monuments which 
seem to bid defiance to the destroying touch of time ; 
and the most celebrated statuaries solicited the priv- 
ilege of representing him with the tokens of his vic- 
tory, in marble or bronze, in the sacred Grove of 
Olympus. 

Later on, when Rome had reached the height of 
her glory, she had few if any enemies left to contest 
with. Fearing, in consequence, a relaxation of the 
physical strength of her people, and partly to satisfy 



136 HORSE-BACK RIDING. 

in a degree the bloodthirsty desires of some of her 
emperors, she established the Arenas, where for the 
first time were enacted the tragical games of the gladi- 
ators. 

This barbarous custom, however, seemed to be a 
forerunner of the decline of the Roman Empire, 
which, through the great energy of her early heroes, 
had reigned supreme during five hundred years, en- 
lightening the world with the highest order of civil- 
ization, and giving birth to such illustrious men as 
Scipio, Cincinnatus, Virgil, Cicero, and Csesar. 

Passing from this era to the next, that of the 
Middle Ages, we find tournaments first mentioned. 
They were the grand spectacles of this epoch. The 
champions, generally young men of the nobility, 
entered the lists, mounted on steeds, encased in 
armor, richly caparisoned, and always surrounded by 
a strong body of men-at-arms. 

Here they challenged each other to break one or 
more lances. 

The victor of the contest received not only a 
crown of laurel or oak as a reward for his prowess, 
but what was, no doubt, more acceptable, the hand 
of the fairest and wealthiest chatelaine of the as- 
sembly ; hence the saying that these heroes were 
" crowned by the hands of the Graces." 

Nothing can be more descriptive or thrilling than 
an account of these tournaments given by Sir Walter 
$cott, in " Ivanhoe." 



HORSE-BACK RIDING. 137 

Now, however, since the human race has become 
more polished and the world in general more civil- 
ized, these ancient diversions have taken a much 
milder form, attended with far less danger, and at the 
same time an equal amount of exertion required. 

The chariot-races and tournaments of the Middle 
Ages have been succeeded by the modern race- 
course and the numerous advantages of the manege ; 
and it cannot for a moment be doubted that these, 
together with tandems and four-in-hand equipages of 
to-day, are far preferable to the chariots and tourna- 
ments, without the hazardous and sometimes tragical 
end attending the ancient games. 



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LADIES' ROUND HATS IN 
FELT AND STRAW. 

Coaching Umbrellas and Parasols, 



CESTEBfNIAL JUDSE3' KIPCBT. 

Fine Quality of the Materials 
used; High Grade of Workman- 
ship ; Excellent Taste in Trim- 
mings. 




Isaac I. Stillings, 

IMPORTER AND MANUFACTURER OF 

FINE SADDLERY, 

144 FIFTH AVENUE, 

Next door to corner of 19th Street, N EW i0 R K . 



AN ELEGANT ASSORTMENT OF 



English Riding Saddles and Bridles 

CONSTANTLY ON HAND. 

Also our own make of the above goods in 
stock, or made to order. 



CARRIAGE and ROAD HARNESS, 

Whips, Spurs, Riding Gloves, 



ETC., ETC. 



O- IB J±i Jtrjj JrvL; hi 7 

Tailor, 

278 FOURTH AVENUE, between TWENTY-FIRST and TWENTY- 
SECOND STREETS. 



Established over Twenty Years. 



Ladies' Riding Habits 



A SPECIALTY. 



DRESSES, SACQUES, 

JACKETS, and CLOAKS 

OF EVERY DESCRIPTION 



MADE TO ORDER. 



Importers of the Finest 

FRENCH CLOTHS AND SUITINGS. 



A PERFECT FIT GUARANTEED. 



IF. lECBLLT, 

HORSE-SHOEING ESTABLISHMENT, 

No. 134 West 52d Street, 

BET. SIXTH AUD SEVENTH AYE'S. 



Shoeing done in the most approved 
manner. 



Shoeing of SADDLE HORSES a Specialty. 



PARTICULAR ATTENTION PAID TO LAME AND INTERFERING 

HORSES, AND PERFECT SATISFACTION GUARANTEED 

IN EVERY RESPECT. 



HORSES SENT FOR AND TAKEN HOME, 



WITH THE UTMOST CARE. 



THE BOOK FOR HORSE BUYERS. 



THE ILLUSTRATED 



BOOK OF THE HORSE. 

T/wroughbred, Half bred, Cart-bred, Saddle and Harness, 
British and Foreign. 

WITH HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP, THE MANAGEMENT OF THE STARLE, BREEDING, 
BREAKING, AND TRAINING FOR THE ROAD, THE PARK, AND THE FIELD. 



By S. SYDNEY, Author of " Gallops and Gossips," etc., etc. 

'rated with Tzventy-fve Facsimile Colored Plates, fro7n Original Pain 
and upward of One Hundred Wood Engravings. 

Uniform in Size and Style with the " Illustrated Book of Poultry." 



CLOTH, EXTRA, . . . $12.50 | HALF MOROCCO, . . . $17.50 



CONTENTS. — Chap. t. Estimates of Annual Expenses of a Carriage and Horses. 
— 2. Carriages. — 3. On the Purchase of Horses. — 4. Useful Horses and Ponies. 
— 5. Park Hacks, Phaeton Steppers, Carriage Horses. — 6. Oriental Blood 
Horses. — 7. The Origin of the Modern British Mare. — 8. History of the Eng- 
lish Blood Horse. — 9. The Modern Blood Horse. — 10. Half-bred. — n. Foreign 
Horses. — 12. Heavy Draught Horses. — 13. Asses and Mules. — 14. Horseman- 
ship, or the Art of " Equitation." — 15. A "Lesson on Horsemanship. — 16. Hints 
to Amazons. — 17, Hunting.— 18. Hare Hunting, Fox Hunting, Stag Hunting. — 
19. Hunters. — 20. Training for Hunting, Riding to Cover.— 21. Preparations of 
the Hunter for Treatment in and after Hunting. — 22. Miscellaneous Hints on 
Hunting. —23. Harness, Putting in Harness.— 24. Driving. — 25. Stables and 
Coach Horses. — 26. Stable Clothing, Fodder, and Work. — 27. Breeding. — 
28. Breaking and Training. — 29. Veterinary Information. 

" It is the most complete compendium of information upon horses of all coun- 
tries and of every breed that has hitherto been -given the public." — Spirit of the 
Times, 

Second Edition now Ready. Price, Fifty Cents. 

BITS AND BEARING-REINS and HORSES AND HARNESS. 

By E. F. FLOWER. 

With Seven fidl-page Plates in Lithograph, and Portrait of Mr. Flower. 

" Not only may people, by studying it (' Bits and Bearing-Reins *), save their 
necks and keep their horses in good condition, but what is realiy the grievous sin of 
cruelty may be corrected." — New York Times. 

" An admirable little pamphlet. The condemnation of the bearing-rein is the 
principal theme of the work, and, after one perusal of it, any kind-hearted man 
would decide to remove them from his stock."" — Spirit of the Times. 



a> 



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Sent prepaid on receipt of price. 



CASSELL, PETTER & GALPIN, 

Send for Catalogue. 596 Broadway, New York. 

X 895* 




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